In Your Shoes
by tess4aria
Summary: When Hattori, Kaitou Kid and Conan get trapped in a room in the Black Organization, major role reversal ensues! Two new kids? A new Kaitou Kid? Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Confrontations?**

Disclaimer: I do not own Meitantei Conan.

This is my first time writing for Conan, so I'd really appreciate any comments you all could give me. Do I stay in-character, for instance?

Some Japanese: Barou (How Conan usually says idiot-moderately affectionate), Aho (Kansei-dialiect, aka. what Heiji uses): Idiot (somewhat affectionately), Oi: Hey, -kun (often affectionate/ close relationship...usually used for guys who are younger or same age-not very macho-sounding, so might make people feel a little awkward depending on who calls them this), -san (suffix connating some respect, separation), Tantei (detective)

R&R, Please! Thanks so much and enjoy!

* * *

Two figures crawled through the dark ventilation system, trying to make some progress without making too much noise-the pipes would make slight clanging noises with each movement, but it wasn't enough to attract any attention unless anyone was really close by.

"Oi, Hattori," a voice growled, "Can't you go any faster?"

"It's not that easy, Kudou!" he hissed back, continuing to slowly put one hand after the other, ducking his head lower as he neared a bend in the path. "I have to deal with a full-size adult's body, after all!"

"Oh, well so sorry about that," Conan responded sarcastically.

"I hear something." The two detectives froze. Neither of them had said anything. They could hear some movement in the room below them.

_Shit. They heard us!_

The sound of footsteps got louder until they stopped directly below where Edogawa Conan (aka Kudou Shinichi) and Hattori Heiji were crouched, barely daring to breathe.

"It was somewhere above us… heheheh." Conan's heart froze. That was definitely Gin's voice. He couldn't let them find them. He had a feeling that THIS time, there would be no mistakes made in finishing him off…not to mention Hattori, who he'd dragged along. Well, no. Hattori had insisted he take him along, now that he'd located the inconspicuous office building which housed a great deal of the research and plans of the Black Organization.

"Looks like we have a little rat crawling around."

"Really, aniki? You want me to get him?" A boorish, slightly less intimidating voice asked. Definitely Vodka.

The first man didn't respond. Or at least, that's how it sounded to the detectives trapped above. Slowly, the two met each other's eyes.

The shrunken great detective of the east felt a wave of guilt wash over him as he saw his friend quickly disguise the fear in his eyes. This was HIS problem. He couldn't let Hattori get hurt just because he had to be so damned loyal.

Feeling something hard in his pocket, he remembered and closed his fist around the little capsule. This was what they were risking their lives for-and he didn't even know if it was really what they needed. Haibara had tried to describe its appearance, the little pill which would help her to develop a true antidote to Apotoxin-4869 but the Organization seemed to have changed things since she'd left. So he just had to hope that this would be worth it.

Assuming they could even get out of here alive.

He looked around for something-anything he could use to distract the murderers below them. Maybe he should jump through the vent into the room with them, surprising them long enough to give Hattori time to escape. But no. There was no way Hattori would leave him alone to fight them. Especially since he was stuck in his child's body. And besides, he couldn't communicate much of anything to the kansai detective in this darkness without being overheard.

_Maybe something will come to me_. The seconds passed and he had nothing. Dread continued to build up in his chest as he heard the sound of something heavy scraping-like furniture being- to stop directly underneath the nearest vent-only 4 feet from where the detectives hid.

_Kuso. What now? _One of the men was climbing onto whatever he'd moved, reaching up to open the vent. Any second now…

POP! From below them, perhaps on the other side of the room, there was a sound like firecrackers before a series of colorful-sounding explosions a little further away.

"A-aniki! It's Kaitou Kid!"

"I know that!" Gin's voice sounded more than a little annoyed. "You follow him. I'm going to deal with our friends here."

Conan's heart sunk. Man, they'd almost had a chance to escape.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a door being blown off its hinges. Followed by an explosion right below them and a string of curses from Gin. "YOU!"

Deciding to risk a quick glance through the vent, Conan saw the ruins of what must have been a table, and the back of what must have been a very angry Gin struggling to remove himself from the rubble. Glancing at Hattori, the two detectives nodded, and began to hurry along the passageway.

Soon, the sounds behind them died down, and they came to a dead end. Peering through the grate, the room was dark, but seemed to be unoccupied. Questioning Conan with his eyes, Hattori then began to carefully peel back the grate, opening the way for them to get out of the tight crawlspace they'd been stuck in for close to an hour. The vent opened into the side wall of a room, perhaps a floor above where they'd been with Gin and Vodka. Yanking himself out, Hattori stretched out his arms and legs, and rolled onto his back.

"Oh man! Never again will I take for granted just being able to stretch out…and stand up! I can't believe how tight that was." Hattori grumbled softly, and Conan, crawling out of what was considerably easier for his compact body, half-smiled at him.

"Thank god Kaitou Kid showed up. Guess he can be helpful sometimes, huh?"

"It's not the first time. He's a pain the ass, but he has his moments," the younger detective replied, beginning to take in their surroundings.

It was a much bigger room than it had appeared at first glance. It looked as if the walls between two rooms had been knocked down, with a connecting corridor between them…at closer inspection, the walls seemed to be made out of some odd type of metal. A bad feeling began to creep up in the shrunken detective's throat…

"Hattori," he muttered.

"Hm?"

"You don't think…they let us come in here, do you?"

Without answering, Hattori stiffened a little, walking over to examine the wall… it was totally homogenous (except for the vent), but then, double-taking and eyes widening, he saw that a thin sheet of metal had hardened over the entrance they had come in through.

"Kudou…you don't think…?"

Approaching what looked like a door, but with a flattened knob which looked as if it had simply been painted on, he turned around and grimaced, slowly nodding to Hattori.

"Yeah…ingenius, really. Somehow they made this room so that you can only enter it."

"There must be some way to undo the trick…"

Laughing slightly, Conan responded, "I doubt it. If they let us find our way in here, which it seems they DID, even if we were to get out, I'll bet you they're all standing outside, waiting for us…"

"Crap! Well, Kudou, it's been nice knowing you." Hattori smiled at him to hide the fact that he actually WAS worried.

_There has to be something_, Conan thought frantically. _The window! _No, of course, they must have sealed it too. He approached it to make sure, and sure enough, the odd filmly metal seemed to extend over the window glass as well.

Far from giving up, the two continued to search the room for something to get them out of this situation, when suddenly, a familiar voice shouted out, laughing.

"Hah! I don't think so! You think you can catch me?"

Conan and Hattori looked at each other in shock as the voice of Kaitou Kid approached their Jail cell. _Kuso_! They had both been secretly depending on help from the phantom thief to escape, but…if he were locked in WITH them…?

A second later, the film of metal over the door began to vibrate, and the form of Kaitou Kid phased through it…bizarre. The door must have opened from the outside, but there was no hint of it from within. It was simply as if Kaitou had slipped through a painting of a door on the wall…landing right into a surprised detective.

"Owww, my head!" The magician whined. "Hey, it's you, Tantei-kun!" Kaitou wrenched his white cape out from underneath the boy he had bowled over, then crouching down and grinning at his sometimes-adversary, sometimes-accomplice…at least, that was the way HE saw him.

Rubbing his shoulder which had slammed to the ground when Kaitou landed on him, Conan scowled up at the grinning face. "Barou. You do realize you just walked into their trap?"

"Hm? Whatever do you mean?" Kaitou asked innocently.

"He means that they meant you to find your way in here," Hattori put in. "This room. You can get in, but there's no way out…at least, as far as we've been able to find so far."

Kaitou looked up at the darker-skinned young man. "Oh, you are…that's right. Hattori Heiji-kun, right?"

"…kun?" Hattori looked at him like he was crazy. "I don't know how I look like a _kun _to you. Maybe to Kudou's girlfriend, but…" Flashing his friend a mischievous smirk as he jumped the kick he'd aimed at his legs, his face got more serious, remembering the situation they were currently in.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Conan looked up at him curiously. "I didn't know you had some connection to the Black Organization…"

Kaitou's ever-lighthearted expression darkened a shade as he responded. "Long story, bud. Maybe I'll tell you sometime, assuming we get out of here, that is…but let's just say I definitely have some personal matters to settle with these bastards."

"Well, what do you know. We've found some common ground," Conan smirked up at him.

"What about…OH." Understanding suddenly lit up the young theif's expression. _It all makes sense now. I was wondering how the great Kudou Shinichi turned into a little kid. He's certainly no magician, after all. But of course, it would make sense that he would have looked into a crime organization of this magnitude…so they caught and shrunk him…_

Conan shot him a warning glare.

"I know, I know! I'm not going to say anything!" He hissed back, aware that they could hardly have been in a worse place to reveal secrets to each other.

"Well don't worry, kid. I'll take revenge for both of us!" Kaitou said, slapping Conan on the back, which was quickly slapped off.

"Enough. Let's take another look around the place. If the three of us work together, there shouldn't be anything to stop us…" Conan said, partly to reassure himself.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Changes**

Here's chapter 2! Thanks for reading!

Again, I don't own Meitantei Conan.

R&R! :)

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"_Let's take another look around the place. If the three of us work together, there shouldn't be anything to stop us…" Conan said, partly to reassure himself._

After a few minutes, "Oi, you guys." They turned to look at Hattori. "Don't you think it's odd that they're just letting us stay here? What do you think they're playing at?"

"Hm…I've been wondering the same thing."

"Maybe they want us to die of starvation?" Kaitou suggested unhelpfully.

"I doubt we'll be that lucky." Conan responded grimly.

"Oh, good. Because I'll TELL you. There is nothing I hate more than not having regular meals. Speaking of which…" and Kaitou pulled a few onigiri out of his pocket, stuffing one in his mouth. "VANT SHUM?" He asked, mouth stuffed.

Looking at him in disgust, Conan simply said "I'll pass." Hattori chuckled a little. Now seeing him up close, Kaitou Kid wasn't a bad guy. Immature, but then again, to anyone who didn't know the truth, Kudou looked like a terrifyingly mature little boy. The combination of the two together, especially with their astonishingly similar appearances, was quite interesting to watch.

"Hey, are you guys sure you aren't related?" Hattori asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked them over.

"What are you talking about! No, we're not related!" The two fired up together, and answered together, just making Hattori double-up in laughter. "Haha…whatever you guys…hey, do you smell something?"

"Oh shit." It was faint at first, but some odd and strangely pleasant-smelling gas was creeping into the room.

"You guys, quick. Put these on." Kaitou made a movement with his hands, and three little gas masks appeared. "If this is strong, which I'm sure it must be, these masks won't protect us entirely, but it should stop the worst of it…"

Almost as soon as they had secured their masks, a sharp pain hit them in the chests and they instantly lost consciousness.

* * *

When he came to, he felt pain…but it wasn't a stabbing pain in his chest anymore…it was this horrible pressure on his shoulders, and legs and…what the hell was this feeling? As if he clothes were many sizes too small…eyes widening, he looked down, and the pants that had been almost too long now barely touched the tops of his knees. His shirt was definitely not covering his torso, either, but it seemed to have ripped open at the seems enough that it wasn't as uncomfortable as it might have been. Slowly coming out of his daze, he realized what happened as he looked at his hands. Not the tiny, soft, round hands of a child, but the muscular, sturdy and leaner fingers of his grown-up self. Smiling slightly, thinking the organization could have done worse, Kudou Shinichi ripped off the articles of clothing which were ripped and ripping on his far too grown body.

Suddenly, like a lightning bolt in his chest, he realized the others weren't around. Their clothes were, though. Weird…_Oh crap_. A leg poked out from underneath Kaitou Kid's white cape, followed by two little arms wrestling to free themselves from below the billowing white material.

Gritting his teeth, Shinichi turned to look where his best detective friend had collapsed, to see a little boy starting to come to…

_I can't believe it. I finally get my body back, but now these two…oh man…_Gently crouching down, Shinichi put his hand on Hattori's little child-sized shoulder. _How weird. Is this what I always look like to them? Yeah, it's got to be. _Turning to where the other man-trapped-in-a-child's-body was, Shinichi slowly pulled off the cape to meet the wide eyes of a boy who looked almost identical to how he'd looked as Conan.

It was weird. He looked so innocent. They both did-but he knew better. After all, he'd learned to be more dangerous as a kid than he'd been previously as an adult. After such a long time, part of him had adjusted to and even enjoyed being Conan. He wouldn't admit that to himself, though. Or anyone else, for that matter.

"What happened?" The child asked quietly before cupping his hands over his mouth. "My voice!"

Shinichi looked down at the little form of Kaitou Kid and nodded. "It looks like the tables have turned…"

"Hey! That is SO not funny!" The indignant KID leapt up before tripping on his oversized suit, banging to the ground.

A groan attracted their attention to the Kansai detective. "Oh, Hattori too, huh?" Kaitou said, looking over at his fellow sufferer.

Shinichi again crouched down next to Hattori. "Hey man, you okay?"

Groggily waking up and turning to face him, Hattori's eyes widened. "Kudou! You got your body back!"

"Uh, well, for the time being at least…not like it's the first time I've reverted, you know. But Hattori, something's happened. I guess it was that gas-it must have had some of the Apotoxin 4869's characteristics. I don't know why it did this to me, but…"

Hattori stared up at Shinichi for a few seconds before slowly turning to look at his hands. He had a feeling he knew what was going on when it hit him that his voice had sounded different, confirming his fears. "I've shrunk, haven't I?" He asked, not meeting Shinichi's eyes this time.

"Yeah." No reason to beat about the bush. Looking from Hattori to Kaitou, Shinichi shook his head. "What a weird perspective. You know, it would have been kind of fun for me if you guys had been put in this situation with me still trapped in kid form, but this way…I just feel like a babysitter."

"Hey, you ass! How about a little understanding? A little 'Oh, I understand what it's like! We'll get this turned around as soon as possible!' or something?" Kaitou's angry voice piped up from the little boy's body.

"Sorry guys, it's just surprising is all…" Shinichi said sheepishly.

"Hey, what are we going to do about clothes?" Hattori asked, pulling at the absurdly huge get-up draped over his shoulders.

"Never fear, my comrade-in-arms!" Kaitou jumped out of his KID suit and ran to stand beside Hattori. Spinning around once, a little poof of pink smoke left them each sporting a set of properly fitting child-size clothes. "What do you think? Having the amazing Kaitou Kid around isn't so bad, huh?" He grinned at the surprised look on the Kansai detective's face.

"I guess…woah." Hattori let out a slight grin before worry settled again on his face. "You know, pretty soon they're going to realize that gas didn't finish the job. If we don't figure out something, it's going to get serious."

Shinichi looked down at them. "You're right, Hattori. Okay, well…KID…is there anything you can use to blow our way out of here?"

"Blow our way out?"

"We can't get out any of the doors, but the metal film around the window seems to be thinner. If we could blow our way through to the outside, that might be our best bet."

"Well, that would be fine and dandy, but how to you propose we survive once we leave the window, Tantei-san? I'm too small to use my Kaitou suit, and though I can work some magic, you need the right balance of weight and height to use the cape as a hang glider…"

With a little smirk and mischievous glint, Shinichi looked the tiny Kaitou in the eye. "Well, I'm still in need of some clothes, anyway…what do you say if I play Kaitou Kid for the time being?"

Hattori and Kaitou stared and started laughing. "Oh, I can't believe it! I think my life is complete! Mr. law-abiding Kudou Shinichi is going to impersonate Kaitou Kid! I don't think I can hold in my excitement!"

"Shut it." Shinichi warned. After all, he was a LITTLE curious, but no way was he going to let Kaitou here get the benefit of the doubt.

"Oi, Kudou."

"Yeah?"

"How did you get used to this body?"

Shinichi turned to Hattori, realizing that he was having a much harder time with this than always-positive Kaitou. After all, Hattori had a sense of humor, but he wasn't used to being put in such a vulnerable position…

"Hattori, I'm sorry…this is…if you hadn't come this never would have..."

He shook his head. "No, Kudou. There's nothing you could have done to stop me. Besides, you've got that capsule, right?"

"Oh! Right!" With a pang of shock, Shinichi crouched down to the pair of pants he'd ripped off. Luckily, the capsule was still safely in the pocket. "I've got it, Hattori. You're right. We'll definitely set everything right." Crouching down, Shinichi put his arm on his friend's shoulder. "Besides, who knows? This might just be a temporary transformation, and I'll be back to calling you Heiji-niichan."

Hattori smirked at that, and said, sweetly, "You mean it, Shinichi-niichan?"

Their laughter was interrupted by an "ahah!" from behind them.

"What did you find, KID?" Hattori asked.

"Just the point of least resistance. Okay, here's what's happening." Kaitou's voice took on a commanding character which contrasted so greatly with his current form that Shinichi had to hold back a laugh. "You, Kudou. Are you enjoying walking around practically naked? Don't tell me you're afraid to put on the sacred Kaitou Kid suit!"

"What? You…" Blushing, he realized that KID was kind-of right. Shinichi, normally so scrupulous and almost anal about appearance, had been so distracted that he'd been walking around in nothing but scraps of Conan's clothes…

Looking down at the white suit, he felt a little lump in his throat, but pushed it back. Time for another adventure.

First stepping into the pants, he then reached for the royal blue shirt. So far so good…nothing too awkward. Blue, at least, was his color…but the red tie wasn't quite as easy for him to accept. _Oh well, Shinichi. You can't half-ass this. _After fixing his tie, he grabbed the white jacket-with cape attached-and slowly fixed it around his shoulders. A perfect fit. The whole get-up fit him perfectly. Guess it wasn't just facial appearance he and KID had in common…

From below, Kaitou was watching him with intense amusement, and an odd hint of something else. Choosing to voice that "something else," he gushed out "Oh, it's like I'm passing on the family legacy! Oh, shin-chann!"

Shinichi glared down at the smirking thief. "Whatever. Pass me the rest of it, will you?"

"Gladly." Grabbing his trusty top hat, he passed it up to Shinichi, who carefully positioned it on his head. Then all that was left was the monocle. The sky had grown dark, and Shinichi walked over to the window to see if he could check his transformation in the reflection. He stopped, stunned. He was Kaitou Kid. There was barely a hair out of place. He wouldn't have been able to recognize himself…And certainly anyone else seeing him wouldn't be able to tell it was high school detective Kudou Shinichi dressing as the thief. This thought both relieved and excited him. Maybe he could play it up? Act the part of the fun-loving, law-breaking thief? He slapped himself for thinking it. He wasn't like that. He was a detective, for god sakes!

With a little smirk, he turned to his waiting audience. Noticing their stares and slightly gaping mouths, he bowed to them in a very KID-like motion.

"This is insane." Hattori breathed.

"This is so cool!" Kaitou squeaked out. "Man, that's how I always look, huh? I am the greatest, I'll tell you."

"Obviously, it's the suit, aho…" Hattori muttered.

Ignoring him, Kaitou returned to business. "Right! So, Kudou-kun…or, until we get to safety, here's the plan. I'm Conan, you're Kid, Hattori here can be…well, you can have my dad's name till you think of one: Toichi."

"Oh, your dad, huh?" Kaitou didn't respond to this. They watched him as he walked back over to the window, then back to his bag.

"Wait, Conan's glasses!" Racing to wear he'd collapsed earlier, "KID" gathered Conan's various treasures…The bow-tie, the soccer-ball belt, the shoes and the glasses before beginning to affix some of them on "Conan."

"Hey, I can dress myself, you know!"

"Well, I need to show you how to use the items. Hattori, you too. Hakase can make you your own set once we get out of here, but for now, I'll have to spread this stuff between you two."

"Toichi" muttered his assent, joining the other two. As he was helping the two with his items, "KID" became vaguely scared by the fact that he had unconsciously been treating them like real children. He looked at Hattori, but he wasn't making eye contact. _Oh shit_.

"Hey, Hattori…I mean, uh, Toichi or whatever."

"Hm?"

"Well… I was thinking. When we're out of here, maybe you could show me to that Okonomiyaki place? We never did get the chance before…"

Reminded of something so normal and familiar, Hattori broke into a slight smile. "Fine, Kudou. But first we have to get out of here."

"Got it."

…

"Okay, it should blow in ten seconds. 'KID!' You know what you're doing with the hang glider, right?" Shinichi rolled his eyes. "Yes, you've explained it enough times, I'd say…Anyway, I'm holding Hattori-uh, Toichi, and you, 'Conan,' are going to be attached to my waist…all ready?"

"YEAH!"

The explosion left a small gap in the wall which instantly started to close over again. _It's now or never_. Grabbing the two adult-children, "KID" leapt through the closing hole into the night sky, gripping them both as he let the wind beat on his face. After gathering enough speed, he yanked a tab on his belt, transforming his cape in Kaitou Kid's hang glider.

"Wow! This is awesome!" He'd ridden with Kid before, but this was the first time he was in control, flying like this. Of course, there was no engine, but they had enough height and speed to make it so that didn't matter.

They kept up their course for a good 20 minutes, flying low to avoid attention, before landing on a beach not far from Agasa-Hakase's and the Kudou family mansion.

Closing the hang glider, the three fell backwards, collapsing on the beach. It had been a long night… but their adventure was far from over.

* * *

What did you think? Hope you enjoyed it :) Till next time!

P.S.: Don't forget to review! :D I really appreciate it!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Explanations**

Let me first say...THANK YOU SO MUCH for the wonderful reviews, story alerts, favorite-ings, etc. You guys made my day!

Kore kara mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu! (There isn't such a great translation of this, so I'll just say that I'm counting on you from now on, too!)

Oh yes...not much Japanese in this one...well, "kuso" is basically shit, and "meitantei" basically means famous/great detective...OH, and "Ojousan" is like young miss/ young lady

I hope you like this one! I should be posting the next installment shortly. :D

_**R&R!**_

* * *

Sliding open the door leading to one of the complex's several balconies, the girl moved to lean against the rail. She sighed, looking at the moon.

"That baka. It's been far over the estimated time to retrieve the capsule. Kudou-kun… I wonder if all hope is now lost?" She had a hard time admitting it, but the detective had grown on her. She no longer saw him just as a guinea pig to further her research, nor just as someone to cooperate with due to his similar situation…had she actually started to care…?

A shadow appeared on the moon and began to grow in size. Squinting at it, she recognized a bulky figure flying her way. Quickly getting over her shock, she just stood back, arms crossed, to glare suspiciously up at her night visitor.

Bowing ceremoniously, "KID" smiled at her and said, "Ojousan, as promised, I have obtained the treasure."

Glaring at him, she said, "What are you talking about, Kaitou Kid? When did I ever ask you for help?"

With a glint of amusement in his eyes, the phantom thief reached into his cloak and pulled and two little boys, one looking slightly annoyed, the other convulsing with excitement and laughter.

Haibara's eyes widened. "Kudou-kun! Are you okay?"

As she approached him, "Conan" squeaked a little and ran backwards, smacking into the wall opposite.

_That's odd. _"What's wrong with him?" Haibara asked, looking to "KID" for answers.

"He's just an odd fellow," "KID" responded, another smile threatening to break out.

"Hmph. Whatever." Returning to more closely inspect the boy who was still quivering in the corner, she asked, trying to use a gentler voice, "Kudou-kun, what's wrong? Did they give you some kind of drug to upset your nerves? How about the capsule? Did you find it?"

"KID" put his hand on her shoulder, holding her back. "I got it, yeah. Look, let's go inside so I can explain everything. If you want to know what's wrong with _him_," he gestured at boy cringing in the corner, "I think it has to do with your outfit…"

Frowning, Haibara looked down at her pajamas. What? It's not like they were revealing. They just had little blue and green fish patterns sewed on…

Haibara's eyes widened when she looked closely at the other child in the party. He looked extremely familiar. Even his motions seemed familiar as he walked over to "Conan," who was still hiding his face, and smacked his arm, saying "Aho! Get it together. We need to get inside."

The kid who looked like Conan (she wasn't stupid, and she KNEW something fishy was going on…besides her shirt) nodded, shot her a nervous glance, and shot into the house, pausing on the threshold to say, "Hurry up tantei-san…I mean, uh…KID-sama…"

"KID" and "Toichi" exchanged a glance, rolling their eyes at the kid's stupidity. He just couldn't wait to reveal this big secret, could he?

Slowly beginning to comprehend the situation, but too overwhelmed by the stupidity and oddity of the whole thing, Haibara put a hand on their backs and pushed the remaining two into the house, locking the balcony door behind them.

Haibara's eyes narrowed further as she noticed how comfortable Kaitou Kid seemed to be with the layout of Hakase's not-so-small research lab/ house. She let him lead them to sit on the big curved couches in the living room as she paused to call Agasa-hakase.

"What is it, Ai-kun?" Hakase's voice could be heard calling up from his lab.

"Oh, just some…guests." She responded in her usual soft, cold voice.

Coming into the room and noticing "Conan," Hakase smiled, "Oh, Shinichi!" Before quickly covering his mouth, darting a nervous glance at "KID" who smiled at his old friend.

"Conan," who had momentarily forgotten he was pretending to be Shinichi, didn't respond to the Professor and simply looked around curiously, eyes sparkling.

Noticing Hakase's look of confusion, and the lack of initiative the three younger men/boys were taking, Haibara decided to take control. Sitting down across from them, crossing her arms and legs, she shot them a glare. "Explain." She directed her gaze at the tallest member of the group, who soon folded under her gaze.

"Oh, fine. Show's over, I guess." Smiling, he pulled of his hat, monocle, jacket and cape. After adjusting his hair a little, stripped down to the white pants, blue shirt, and red tie, he was undeniably Kudou Shinichi. He smiled at her.

"Shinichi!" Agasa-Hakase gasped.

"Kudou-kun! Then…" She shot a glance at the other two. "Conan" took off the glasses and messed up his hair a little before pushing himself up and running over to meet the girl (looking decidedly away from the fish patterns on her shirt). Pulling a rose out of thin air, he bowed to her. "Kuroba Kaito, at your service."

The shrunken Kansai detective stood and smirked a little. "Aw, so that's your name, is it? Can't wait to tell Nakamori-keibu…"

Kaito quickly covered his mouth with his hands and groaned a little before smiling once again. "Well, it was for the sake of a beautiful lady. I have no regrets!"

Agasa and Haibara exchanged a glance of confusion over this last exchange, but decided to ask later.

"So you…" Haibara focused her piercing gaze on the darker-skinned boy. "You're Hattori Heiji, aren't you?"

Nervously rubbing the back of his neck, Hattori responded "Well uh…heheh… yeah, that's right…"

"What happened, Shinichi?" Agasa asked after wrenching his eyes away from the newly shrunken duo, shock still registering on his face.

Shinichi's voice turned serious as he glanced at Hattori and Kaito. "We let them lead us into a trap. Into a room with a strange coating on the walls which, from the outside, appeared to be perfectly normal. Once inside, however, we couldn't get out. The doors were flattened and coated in that material, as if they had been laminated, and were totally unusable."

"Kaito, here, too, was led into the room with us, and they let out this poisonous gas. If it hadn't been for the gas masks Kaito gave us, we probably would have died. The slight inhalation, however, was enough to enact some changes…it obviously had properties similar to Apotoxin 4869. It shrunk Hattori and Kaito, but I don't know why it did this to me… Do you have any idea?"

Haibara considered him for a minute, thinking over all he'd said.

"Well, I'd like to do tests on you three to make sure, but assuming it behaves like Apotoxin 4869, it's likely untraceable. At the very least, however, I can monitor how your bodies are reacting to the drug to predict what changes we might see in the near future. Otherwise, it is hard for me to make anything more than an educated guess. Kudou-kun. Pass me the capsule."

"Oh, right." Digging into pocket, Shinichi passed over a little red-and-white pill-looking thing.

"This isn't what I described." She said dully.

"I know, Haibara, but I didn't see anything else that looked remotely like it…" Shinichi started to feel a lump creeping up in chest. Was the whole trip a total waste, then? "We were planning on searching elsewhere when we wound up in that room and…" he trailed off.

Noticing the detective's defeated look, Haibara softened slightly. "Well, perhaps this will prove helpful. It is, after all, an example of their newest technology. Working with it may give me some ideas to further my own research. And it isn't impossible that this is what we were looking for in the first place. They may have just made some adjustments to its appearance since I was there."

"So, Shinichi. How did you escape? And why did you come in dressed as Kaitou Kid?"

"Oh, that. Well, the only escape method we could figure out was by flight, but KID was shrunk so he couldn't really wear the suit," Shinichi explained.

"Wait, KID shrunk?" Agasa asked in shock.

Comprehension dawned on Haibara's face as she shot a glance at the messy-haired kid twiddling his thumbs. How could she have been so slow? It was obvious. Even his name…Kaito… Kaitou KID. And here he was a kid, after all. The earlier conversation made sense now.

Chuckling a little, Haibara glanced at Shinichi. "You seemed to be enjoying yourself enough, impersonating KID. Particularly considering your obsession with maintaining societal order."

"Don't get carried away. I've just had a lot of practice in the impersonating department recently," he replied, his eyes moving to rest on the bowtie on Hattori's neck. [Kaito doesn't need a bowtie to change his voice!]

"So? What do you plan to do now?"

Shinichi moved his hand to its customary thinking position under his chin. "We have to be careful after that last stunt…Most important are the people who might be affected if the organization finds us. Kaito."

The little thief looked up at him. "Yes, meitantei?" He asked in a sugary voice.

Rolling his eyes, Shinichi continued. "Since you were running around like an idiot all over the place, you are going to be the most obvious target. You are the intruder whose identity they are sure of…"

"I can't resist flashy shows and bangs. You know that!" Kaito pouted, but the detective ignored him.

"Hattori is in the best situation. He previously had no connection to the organization, and so they don't have a name to search for. For him, the kid disguise works perfectly well…just as mine did for so long for me…"

"In my case, however…Well, however you look at it, Kaito and I are really mixed up in this. They didn't actually catch me face to face, however…so they wouldn't necessarily pin me as one of the intruders. However much I'd like to, though, just resuming my life as Kudou Shinichi will be difficult. If the organization gets wind that I'm back, they'll make the connection, I'm sure…and similarly, if Conan disappears, they are definitely going to notice."

_Kuso! I finally get my body back and it looks like there's going to be more tip-toeing around than usual._

"You're right, Kudou. We have to at least play down the organization's suspicions by having as few missing people as possible. In the case of "Conan," we have an easy answer, assuming he accepts…" Hattori shot a winning smile at the little thief.

"Hold on, hold on, HOLD ON." Kaito stomped into the middle of the room so he could glare at everyone. "For a little while it's fun, but don't tell me you expect me to play that goody-goody all day long! I can't do it!" Kaito finished dramatically, pretending to pull out his hair.

"Hm, you might be right, Hattori." Shinichi said, again ignoring the thief. "His personality's all wrong, but he's a good impersonator, and the looks are no problem."

"Are you sure, Kudou-kun?" A sinister chuckle came from behind him. "You want to trust the thief alone with Ran-san?"

At Haibara's words, Shinichi felt his chest take a nose-dive. His face blanched.

Hattori sniggered at his friend's reaction.

Kaito, on the other hand, brightened significantly. "Well…you know…Shinichi-niisan…since I understand your situation, I'd be willing to help you out this time."

"No way."

"Don't worry! I won't touch Ran-chan!" He winked up at the anxious detective.

"Get over yourself. There's no way to live with Ran and not have any physical contact…I mean, she sees Conan as her brother, for god sakes! No. We're just going to have to figure out another plan…Hattori? Would you be able to…" He looked at his friend pleadingly.

"Kudou, I wish I could help you here, man, but there is no way I could keep up a disguise 24/7 when I'm living with the person I'm trying to hide it from."

"Kudou." Shinichi looked at the thief, shocked at being addressed this way by him. Usually he used nicknames, chock full of sarcasm, but he seemed more sincere this time.

"In all seriousness, you don't have to worry. I know I've made some well…advances on your girlfriend before…"

"She's not my…"

"Come of it, Kudou," Hattori said, smiling.

"Well granted, you two haven't made it clear to each other face to face, yet, so sure…not your girlfriend. The girl you not-so-secretly love and who not-at-all-secretly loves you back…"

Shinichi blushed a little before letting out a low growl.

"Anyway, I'll be a good Conan. I'll protect her and I won't try to steal her away. She's made it clear that she only likes you, and besides…"

A slightly sad look flashed over Kaito's face and it hit Shinichi that he hadn't spared a thought for the fact that underneath Kaitou Kid, here was an actual guy-the same age, apparently, as himself and Hattori, one Kuroba Kaito, who had his own life. His own family. Friends…and even possibly…?"

Hattori had obviously caught on as well. "What's her name, Kaito?" He nudged him in the side.

* * *

Bad place to stop? Don't worry-the next one's almost done. Chapters 3 and 4 were a mega-chapter, but I've decided to split them, and there wasn't a perfect place... anyway, please review!


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Revealed**

Here's the not-so-long-awaited chapter 4!

Again, thank you SO MUCH for all of the reviews! Love you guys.

Again, please R&R!

I do not own Meitantei Conan.

* * *

_"What's her name, Kaito?" He nudged him in the side._

"W-what? I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Kaito turned his back on them, babyishly crossing his arms.

"Well, I'll just have to start guessing…is her name…Kiyoko? Midori? Ami? …." It continued on like this for a while, Shinichi and Hattori getting really into it (Haibara and Agasa Hakase had moved to the next room to examine some blueprints to wait out the time), before Kaito finally exploded. "FINE! HER NAME IS AOKO, OKAY? NAKAMORI AOKO! And though, no, she is not unattractive, and yes, we have been good friends for a while, she is also a total pain! She's the one member of the anti-Kaitou Kid rallies (except for her dad, that is) and she likes to chase me with mops! And even worse…FISH!"

The two detectives blinked at Kaito for a minute before bursting into laughter.

"A mop? And fish? Man, what's your problem with fish, anyway? Haha, you're really quite interesting, you know!" Clutching his chest, Hattori collapsed back onto the couch.

Shinichi, however, had a maniacal glint in his eye. He looked thrilled, as if he'd just been told that Sherlock Holmes was not, in fact, a fictional character, but was a man, still alive, who was impressed by his work on a case… With a smirk, Shinichi said, "I see now. Nakamori, huh? Does Nakamori-keibu realize that his daughter's best friend and long-time crush is Kaitou Kid?"

Kaito's face blanched. He sputtered, unable to get out anything coherent.

"Haha! I'll take that as a negative!"

"Are you serious?" Hattori looked from one man to the other (well, quasi-man). "That's hysterical!"

"Well, then…I guess I have more to hang over your head than I realized. Guess revealing your identity would have more consequences than just landing you in jail…"

"You jerk. That's how you repay me for opening up, you…"

Shinichi felt an odd wave of compassion for the thief. He'd never disliked Kaitou Kid. Honestly, he was always thrilled whenever he sent out a heist notice. Chasing him had always proven to be a great challenge, and those times more recently when they'd worked together, he'd started to realize…the guy liked to mess around, but he seemed trustworthy. Before he'd realized it, he'd almost started to consider him a friend. And not just because he was one of the few people who realized his true identity.

Shinichi crouched down and put an arm on Kaito's shoulder. "Oi. You know I was just playing around. Look, Kaito…I know the situation sucks, but we have to work together to figure out the best thing to do. I'll need your help, too…if Kuroba Kaito disappears out of the blue, there will trouble for you, right? Looks like I'll have to play you-at least occasionally. Then, you could come stay with me as my cousin or something, and you'll get to see Aoko and your parents and everyone…"

Kaito stiffened a little, slightly shocked at the man's consideration of his situation. "Oh…thanks, Kudou…but…"

"Hm?"

"Well, you don't have to worry about my family. My mom's abroad. She's been traveling for a while now."

Shinichi raised his eyebrow. "Oh?" Another weird similarity, he thought to himself. "And your dad?"

At this Kaito stiffened again. Should he tell them? He was normally so good at keeping up his poker face, but everything was upside-down right now…and if Kudou was indeed going to cover for him, he needed to know. "My dad…was killed. Eight years ago…by the black organization."

Silence shot through the house. Shinichi and Hattori glanced at each other before allowing their eyes to rest on the thief's back.

"My dad was the original Kaitou Kid. He committed a lot of minor crimes in order to stop truly evil organizations and crimes the law alone couldn't prevent. He was also a brilliant magician, and made great use of his skills in his heists. The black organization is a perfect example of the kind of trash he worked to get rid of."

Surprised and fascinated, the detectives nodded, holding onto his every word.

"They tried to recruit him to help them find a special jewel, the Pandora gem, which is said to have the power to grant immortality…He refused to help him and the bastards…they killed him! That-that was when I decided to take his place…to find the jewel before they do. I'm going to find it and destroy it! I won't allow them to gain its power. I won't let them get their hands on what my father died for!"

The two detectives were speechless. They had no idea the thief had motivations like this… "So, all this time, when you've returned jewels, saying, 'This isn't the jewel I'm looking for…'" Shinichi began, slowly.

"Yes, it's as you're thinking, Tantei-san. I have been orchestrating these public heists partly in hopes to draw out the organization. Even if it's been eight years since that night, they haven't forgotten my father…I was hoping to gain leads through my heists. At the same time, the reason I have been targeting precious stones, and returning them, is because I am only searching for the Pandora gem to destroy. I don't care about petty thievery."

Once he had started spilling his secrets, the secrets he normally kept so tightly locked in his heart, he couldn't stop. Here he was, telling everything to these genius detectives who were normally hot on his tail to arrest him. But here, like this, telling them his story left him with a huge sense of relief. His burden shifted, as if he were no longer holding it on his own.

"We'll get them, Kaito." Kaito and Hattori turned to look at Shinichi, who was looking at the ground, his fists clenched. "I promise you that we'll get them. They've hurt so many people, affected so many lives…but we're going to get them...together. Do you hear me?" An unusual fire was burning in his eyes.

Hattori then put in "Well, now I understand the whole Kaitou Kid thing. The organization's bound to be searching for you, though. We certainly can't pull any heists anytime too soon…but maybe, after a little break, we can test the waters and see if they show themselves. If not, we can continue your search for the Pandora."

At his words, Kaito smiled. "Man oh man… I never would have believed it if I'd heard the two famous high school detectives would be cheering me on to pull a heist…" He shook his head back and forth, as if trying to wake up.

"Aho! We understand now that they aren't really heists, what you pull. More like big magic shows. And of course, you play tricks on the policeman, but you'd never hurt them. Especially when the one who wants your head is AOKO-chan's daddy!" Hattori laughed a little before continuing. "And besides. It wouldn't be YOU pulling the heists." Grinning widely, and starting to whistle, he walked up next to Shinichi and slapped his knee.

Shinichi stared at him for a second, first looking shocked, but then the shock turned to thoughtfulness.

"What? What's going on? Can someone please explain what kind of a parallel universe we are in?" Kaito was looking back and forth between the other two, totally at a loss. Was it just him, or were they both seriously considering the idea of KUDOU SHINICHI, famous high school detective and protector of law and order, taking up the role of Kaitou Kid in his place? Just so that they could continue the work he had started? No way…

"However you look at it, we need to get rid of that gem. I'll look into it myself, and Hattori, you ask your father…oh…" Remembering Hattori's form, he paused. "Well, you could use the bow-tie to ask your father, maybe. We'll worry about the details later. Anyway, we'll put it on hold for now, but it might be that Kaitou Kid is our key to defeating the organization."

"Are you serious, Kudou? You're not just pulling my leg, but you really want to help me?"

Shinichi shrugged. "It isn't just for you. We've had no true leads on the organization for so long, I'm ready to take a more active role…one that doesn't peak with my sneaking through ventilation pipes with Hattori before landing him in a shrunken body…" Guilt again washed over his face, at which point Hattori shook his head, lightly slapping his arm.

"Don't be so negative. We're going to beat those bastards and everything will right itself. Got it?"

"Yeah." Shinichi smirked at him.

"Well, it's been grand, but this little thief needs to get some beauty sleep," Kaito yawned. "Especially if I have to take lessons on being a mr. perfect meitantei starting tomorrow…"

"Haha, whatever." Shinichi waved him off. "Why don't we go next door to sleep at my house? We have tons of spare bedrooms, and I actually have my own clothes there. Not that I don't appreciate this lovely outfit!" Shinichi waved jokingly at Kaito's mock-hurt expression.

"Fine. I will do preliminary research on the new drug by the time you three come back tomorrow morning." They jumped, having forgotten about Haibara still being in the vicinity.

"And I'll get to work on new sets of the items I made for Shinichi," Agasa-hakase added. "See you guys tomorrow."

With a wave, the three younger guys walked out into the dark night.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed it! I'll try to get onto the next chapter when I have time. Busy with shool, you know. Let me know what you think of the way the story's going! Again, I have ideas, but I'm really just writing on the fly, seeing where the story takes me, so let me know if you have any comments/ ideas!

Thanks! Till next time. Mata ne!


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Preparations**

Let me just say, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the reviews, etc! I want to personally get back to you, but I thought I'd try to get this chapter out, first. Anyway, please keep them up! Thank you so much to first-time, and many-time reviewers! Love you guys.

I do not own Meitantei Conan.

Hope you like this one :D

R&R!

* * *

"Rise and shine, kiddies!" Shinichi smirked down at the lumps which burrowed themselves deeper under the covers at the sound of his voice.

Creeping to stand right between the twin beds the two shrunken teenagers had slept in last night, he smiled before jerking the covers off of them.

"Kudou! Give it a rest, already!" Hattori whined in high-pitched kansei dialect before crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at him.

Kaito, however, was sprawled out on his bed and snoring slightly.

"Whatever, Kaito." Hattori grumbled. "I'd have expected you to do a better impersonation of yourself sleeping. You snore a HELL of a lot louder than THAT." With a huff, he muttered under his breath something about *last time I ever take pity on you and let you sleep in the same room you…*

* * *

_*~FLASHBACK~*_

_"NOOOO!" A blood-curdling scream jerked the two detectives from their beds, and they flew down the hallway to the thief's room._

_"What is it, Kaito? Are they here? Is it the black organization?"_

_With Hattori at his heels, Shinichi threw open the door to Kaito's room, to see the little boy shaking in the corner, covering his face with his pillow._

_Before paying the boy much mind, Shinichi began to search the room for any signs of an intruder. Behind the door, nothing. Closet, nothing. Under the bed, nothing. The window was still tightly shut and there was no sign of a disturbance…_

_Shinichi gave Kaito a searching look._

_Hattori, however, rolled his eyes. "You are truly the biggest AHO I have ever met. I don't know, Kudou, if we can put this one off on nee-san, you know?"_

_Shinichi just waited for him to continue, so Hattori moved to the closet door and grabbed a short dress off a hanger which had been dangling from a hook on the knob. "This dress…it has a slightly odd shape, right? Slowly tapers until the bottom, where it flares out? With the light from the moon, couldn't it have cast a shadow like something our friend here isn't so fond of?"_

_Comprehension had dawned on Shinichi's face, and Kaito looked nervous, but Hattori wasn't going to stop his show half-way. Smirking so widely his whole face had a slightly evil quality about it, he held the dress up in the moonlight, making what looked like the shadow of a 10-foot long fish cover the wall across from Kaito's bed._

_"EEK!" And with that, he dove back under the covers, shaking like a rabbit._

_After the other two had laughed until their chests hurt, they turned to leave._

_"WAIT!" Kaito's face was now visible poking out of the covers as he eyed them with desperate, scared eyes…_

_Shinichi and Hattori rolled theirs. "WHAT NOW?" Shinichi asked._

_"You can't leave me in here! Now that I've seen that god-forsaken monster fish on my wall, I'm going to dream about it all night!"_

_Hattori was obviously losing his patience for Kaito's phobia, but he valued his sleep more. "Fine. I'll sleep in here, and you can sleep in my bed." "Stupid gakki…" he muttered, which earned him an amused glance from Shinichi._

_Kaito didn't say anything at first, just sat on the edge of the bed, kicking his legs back and forth and twiddling his thumbs._

_"WHAT NOW?"_

_"Wellllll…. I seem to remember you have two beds in the room you're sleeping in!"_

_"No way."_

_"OH, come on! I never have bad dreams when someone else is there! Especially if I'm with one of the resident Meitantei! Pleaseeee….I promise I'll go right to sleep!"_

_Hattori looked like he was about to punch a wall… "You…"_

_"Yes?" Kaito asked innocently._

_"That form actually fits you…a little TOO well."_

_"Well, I think that's an exaggeration." Kaito pouted._

_"Look. I'm sick of this discussion, so come on. You can sleep in my room, too…" Damn him…_

_"YAY!" Kaito leapt out of bed onto the Kansai detective's back, knocking them both into Shinichi, who picked them up (much to Hattori's displeasure)._

_Smirking while carrying them the whole way, Shinichi kicked open Hattori's door and tossed the "boys" in their respective beds._

_"I'm going to kill that thief…" Hattori muttered, then shooting a death glare at Shinichi, who just waved his hands back and forth in defense._

_"I love you too, Heiji-kun!" Kaito sang out sweetly. "Shinichi-niichan, are you going to tell us a bedtime story?"_

_Shinichi started choking at this…man, this guy was a genius for getting under people's skin…especially Hattori's, he realized, sparing another glance at his friend's gritted teeth and clenched fists… "Goodnight, Kaito-chan!" Shinichi laughed, winking in amusement (and slightly apologetically) at Hattori before closing the door._

_*~END FLASHBACK~*_

"So yeah. Thanks to him, I got at MOST 4 hours of sleep…" Hattori hissed.

"Well, Hattori, he's going to have his hands full pretty soon, so I'm sure you'll be able to get him back. Anyway, do you guys want to grab some breakfast before we head back over to Hakase's?" Shinichi asked.

At the mention of breakfast, Kaito forgot he was pretending to be asleep still, and bolted up, grinning madly.

"Is it ready?"

Not feeling the need to answer him, the two detectives just left him as they made their way down the Kudou house's grand staircase to its large kitchen.

"So Hattori, I was thinking…" Shinichi began. "I mean, now that I have my body back and all…possibly for good…well, I know we need to be careful not to let the black organization get wind of what's up, but as long as Conan is still around, I could live as Kudou Shinichi, don't you think? As long as I'm careful not to do anything public?"

Hattori looked at his friend and he gave a little knowing smile. "You should tell her, you know, Kudou. Now you can tell her without worrying about being Conan the next day. It's the perfect chance, you know?"

Shinichi shook his head a little. "I still need to be careful, though. If I tell Ran, well…I-what will I do about Conan? He is, after all, someone I fabricated, but she's grown close to him. Even though I know Ran notices similarities in how she feels about me and Conan, she also has different feelings for him…I guess what I mean is that Ran's sisterly feelings have made Conan into a real person, and it will be rough on her when she realizes he doesn't really exist…"

Hattori paused at this. This problem had occurred to him in the past, but with all that had happened, recently, it had slipped his mind.

"The problem is that if I start telling Ran the truth-being more honest with her, I still have to do it slowly. If I tell her everything, Conan will really have to disappear, and that could create suspicion from the black organization. However, I don't know how long I can keep it up, seeing her in my real body while maintaining the Conan illusion. For Ran's sake, it would be better to tell her the truth about Conan sooner than later, but it's too dangerous…"

"So, what will you do?" Hattori asked.

"Play doubles. Am I right?" Kaito was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed in a very Kaitou Kid-like way.

Smiling slightly, Shinichi replied. "Yep. I think that's the best way to buy us some time. I'll stay here as Kudou Shinichi, but I'll tell Ran my case isn't over yet-it's just winding down. When I'm not here, I'll be playing the part of one Kuroba Kaito. To anyone who asks, though, I'm off working on the case with Hattori. What do you think?" Shinichi looked at Hattori.

"Well, I don't know how Kazuha's going to believe it…she's always been really suspicious of your 'case,' Kudou, but then again…I can't think of much else."

Suddenly looking up, a slight blush settled itself on Hattori's face. "Speaking of which…where do think I should…?"

"I was thinking you'd stay with me," Shinichi responded instantly. "It wouldn't make sense for us to split up in this situation. Besides, this way you'll be close enough to keep an eye on _that _one, even if I can't…"

Hattori was visibly relieved. "Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Don't worry, Kudou. I'll make sure to babysit the brat so he can't take advantage of nee-san, eh?"

Shinichi just shot him a dark look.

"Hey-what the hell?" Hattori felt something whoosh by him.

Kaito had his card-gun out, smirking. "I thought you'd said something about breakfast, shinichi-niichan," he sang.

"No breakfast for brats who wield weapons. How can I trust you around food?" Shinichi mocked him back. "Anyway, it's time for you to start acting like Conan. Ran expects him back tonight, but if you're going to blow the whole secret just because you're too-"

"Barou. As if I would." The boy's tone suddenly lowered to Conan's slightly-bored sounding tone. "Don't worry, Shinichi-niichan, there's nothing to worry about!" Kaito then perfectly mimicked Conan's "sweet little kid" voice.

Hattori and Shinichi shook their heads. He was, after all, good at his job. And he'd certainly spent enough time around Conan/Shinichi that he should be able to pass moderately well.

"Fine." Shinichi looked at his smiling face with some trepidation. "But don't get lazy, and don't slip up. If you do, we're all in trouble. Got it?"

"Completely!" Kaito resumed to his hyper self on a dime. "So…breakfast?"

* * *

A little later, the three of them were back in Hakase's place, Shinichi now dressed in his usual blue jacket over white shirt, and each of the boys sporting matching neckties, shoes, belts and non-prescription glasses. Hattori was looking at himself in the mirror, wrinkling his nose at his reflection. "Kudou, don't you think we should do something a little more creative than this? I look like a nerd-kid…"

Shinichi laughed and crouched down beside his friend. "Well, it's partly for practicality. The glasses have been really useful for me-Hakase made sure Kaito's pair works the same way, too, even if he has his own skills. And besides, the glasses worked well enough to disguise me…which is surprising, but still… You can change your hairstyle, too, if you want, Hattori. I'm not trying to take the fun of creating your costume away from you!" Shinichi laughed.

At this last, the faint grumbling on the other side of the room grew noticeably louder, followed by four pairs of rolled eyes.

"Kaito, are you serious? Get over it already!" Hattori shot at him.

"No, I don't want to. I told you I could just use my own abilities to change my hair, we didn't actually need to CUT it!" Sure enough, Kaito now stood there, an exact replica of Edogawa Conan, albeit with an uncharacteristically pout-y expression on his face. "And besides, I don't need the necktie. I can imitate any voice without using any cheap tricks!"

Laughing at Kaito's pride, Shinichi rolled his eyes again, but didn't say anything to set the little thief off further. After all, he could understand him, somewhat. At least he never had to drop his identity as a detective when he was Conan. Sure, he didn't get credit for the mysteries he solved, but he had plenty of excuses to use his talents.

Kaito, on the other hand, wouldn't necessarily have much use for his talents as a magician (and especially not as Kaitou Kid) while playing Conan. Of course, the impersonation itself was down his alley, but that was as far as it went. He would have to change his way of living a lot as Conan, while Hattori and Shinichi would be living together, and therefore wouldn't have to live with restraint.

So he could kind of get why the necktie just added to the insult of it all.

"Hey, Kaito," Shinichi softened his voice a little. "Just don't use the necktie, okay? But you need to wear it for show-after all, Conan almost always has it on, so it would be suspicious if you never wore it. Also…you know, you need to make sure you play a believable Conan, but that doesn't mean you can't be yourself a little… After all, Conan is someone I made up, so he might have some hidden talents that he'd just never revealed before…like talent with magic, for instance…"

At this, Kaito looked up to meet Shinichi's eyes, and a genuine smile slowly broke onto his face. "Haha, you don't have to worry about me, Shin-chan. You'd do better to start worrying about practicing the tricks I taught you earlier!"

Shinichi scowled at this. After wolfing down his breakfast, Kaito had raced around collecting things to give Shinichi a magician's starter kit, after which he spent a good hour lecturing to him on what he would insist were the most basic of the basics… Hattori had very much enjoyed sitting back and watching the torture proceed.

"And we're done. What do you think?" Haibara's soft voice came from behind them. Turning, they saw her brandishing scissors, and a dark-skinned boy with glasses and hair that resembled Kaito's usual style grinned at them.

"So? You think they'll recognize me?"

"No fair! He gets my awesome haircut…" Kaito resumed his grumbling, though honestly slightly impressed with the speed and precision with which Haibara delivered these emotionally painful cuts...

"That looks good, Hattori. You definitely could be Hattori's brother or cousin, but nobody would draw the actual connection. I don't think so, at least," he added, thinking about Ran.

"So?" Haibara put in. "Who are you supposed to be then? Do you have an alias?"

"Oh, yeah, that…well, I'm going to be Kudou's relative, anyway…name…Akagawa Soji."

Shinichi smiled a little, but Haibara and Kaito rolled their eyes.

"You tantei-kuns and your naming yourselves after detective fiction writers…my, my, how unoriginal," Kaito admonished them, shaking his head.

"Oi." Shinichi shot Kaito a quick glare before turning to business. "Well, we're going to head over to Ran's place, now…" Shinichi said.

"All of you?" Haibara asked.

"Well, yeah. The only time Kaito's ever been inside the detective agency was one of the times Ran almost figured Conan out. Anyway, I explained things to him, but it's too risky to have him just appear alone and expect him not to slip up. So anyway, we're coming, too-with Hattori as a distant cousin."

"Oh, I see," Haibara smirked a little. "That's the only reason, is it? Are you sure your wanting to talk to Ran-chan as Kudou-kun for the first time in a while has nothing to do with it?"

"Shut up, Haibara. Okay, Hakase, we'll be back. Wish us luck…"

And in what seemed like no time at all, the three of them stood on the street, looking up nervously at the windows of the Mouri Detective Agency.

* * *

Author's Note: And there it is! I hope this one wasn't a disappointment :) I'm going to be very busy this week, but I will do my best to update anyway. Again, thanks for reading and please review!

Also, I combined two Japanese Detective Fiction Writers' names-much like Shinichi did for Conan-to make Heiji's name. Is it okay? First name Soji, last name Akagawa. I'm using the Japanese way of putting last names first, though.

Till next time! Mata aou! ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Close Ties**

**Again, thank you soooooo much for your reviews! You guys are the greatest (and you know who you are). :D Please continue to do so-your reviews let me know what works, and what I should do to keep the story interesting ;)**

That said, this chapter is a little different. Not humor-heavy, but it felt natural to write it this way. If you strongly disagree, let me know. Enough complaints, and I could revise it :)

Japanese lesson for this chapter: Tadaima (I'm home), Okaeri (Welcome back-informal), Hisashiburi (long time no see), yatta na (I'd translate this as 'you did it' or 'way to go'), mou (geez, expression of exasperation), omatase (thanks for waiting, literally, I made you wait)

Anyway, hope you like it! :D

**_R&R!

* * *

_** Hattori nudged the Conan look-alike a few times in the side, a sneer on his face.

"My what have we here? Is the great Kaitou Kid nervous to enter a detective agency?"

Kaito, sure enough, had little beads of sweat forming on his face as he continued to stand, hesitating, at the bottom of the flight of stairs.

Grumbling a little, Kaito rolled his eyes. "Oh, I don't know. I'm just imagining what the head of the karate club would do if she found out Kaitou Kid were impersonating her precious little Conan-kun!"

"Haha, yeah you're screwed. That neechan is something else," Hattori responded unhelpfully. "Well, I guess this is 'good luck,' then, huh?" He grinned.

"Oh, shut up. Let's just get this over with." Kaito started to make his way up the stairs, but Shinichi was already standing at the top, his hand poised over the doorknob.

_Oh that's right. I can't just open the door without knocking like I used to do, _Shinichi thought, glancing at the imitation Conan who was dragging his feet up the stairs.

"Come on!" He hissed at him. "Conan lives here, so it'll be odd if you wait out here like a guest. Go on in! You won't have to say much before she notices me…" Shinichi added.

Reminded of the imminent reunion between two certain love-birds, Kaito's worry over his own situation diminished almost entirely, and suddenly getting into the mood of the whole adventure, he smacked Shinichi in the side. "Roger!" With a wink, he reached up and opened the door enough to slip in, but not enough to reveal the other two visitors.

"Tadaima, Ran-neechan," the voice of Conan rang out.

"Ah, Conan-kun! Okaeri!" Ran raced up and Shinichi gritted his teeth. He could imagine Ran hugging the little boy, and he was suddenly having doubts whether he could deal with this plan after all_… hurry it up, Kaito…_

"Conan-kun, I was getting worried about you! You don't normally stay at Hakase's this long!"

"Hehe, sorry, Ran-neechan. Hakase just had this REALLY cool new video game, and then we did some other stuff..."

"Oh…I see," Ran's voice had a hint of suspicion in it. How many times had the boy used an excuse like this? And why did odd things always seem to happen when he was gone? But, she had to admit, nothing particularly odd had happened this time…

"Hey, hold on. Is there someone out there?" Ran suddenly narrowed her eyes and stood up.

"Oh, yeah, Ran-neechan! Don't worry, they came with me from Hakase's. Someone in particular wanted to see you!" And he sent her a little winning smile.

"Who do you mean, Conan-kun?" Asked Ran, trying not to let herself hope for the one person she really WANTED to see.

"Yo, Ran. Hisashiburi!" The door opened the rest of the way, and Kudou Shinichi stood there, one hand up in a wave.

"Shi-Shinichi?" Ran blinked. It had been a long time since she'd seen him…and have him NOT actually be Kaitou Kid. Starting to run forward, she stopped part-way and looked at him testingly. "Hold it right there, mister. I've been tricked several times recently, and I'm not going to fall for it again! How do I know you're not KID pretending to be Shinichi again?"

At this, all three blanched a little. Her instincts were too sharp. She just had the switch a little jumbled. Understandable as she wasn't working with knowledge of the Apotoxin's shrinking power…

"Haha, Ran, no, I am DEFINITELY not Kaitou Kid. Even that guy is human, and he can't perfectly impersonate someone if he doesn't have all the facts." _Let's just hope he can do well enough with Conan, though…_ Shinichi ignored the glare he was getting from behind familiar glasses below.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Okay, let's see. Where did we FIRST meet Kazuha-chan and Hattori-kun? Before we'd actually spoken to them-"

"Oh, that's easy." He smiled at her, waving his hand matter-of-factly. "It was that case that time we went skiing. We didn't meet face to face until after everything was solved, but we heard some middle-school detective from Osaka was coming up with great deductions and I was determined to solve the case before he did. Remember, Ran?" He smiled at her again.

"Hmmm." Ran rested her chin on her index finger before shrugging and meeting Shinichi's smile. "Well, I have a lot of other questions I could ask…but I guess I believe you." Suddenly her smile faded a little and she looked down. A little more quietly, she spoke up without looking at him. "I missed you, Shinichi."

Before she knew what was happening, she felt strong arms wrapping her up and pulling her close. Reflexively she stiffened, but the hold didn't let up. Slowly she looked up and met Shinichi's eyes. They were dead serious, but a gentleness was shining through them. She felt like they could pierce her soul.

"Shi-Shinichi?"

"Ran. I'm sorry for everything I've put you through. And I'm sorry, but it isn't over yet…but I think I'll be around more often, now. I can't make any promises about this being how it'll always be, but I will do my best to stay by your side."

She slipped her own arms around him, gently returning the hug before burying her face in his chest. "You promise, Shinichi?"

"I promise to do everything I can to protect you. And I promise that I will be around more. But this is an odd case, Ran. I can't tell you the details or you'll get wrapped up in it, and I'm not willing to take that risk. Therefore, I need you to promise me you won't try to figure things out on your own, either, okay?"

Part of Ran wanted to be stubborn and say 'I don't care, Shinichi! Go ahead and tell me! It's not like I haven't been involved in hundreds of cases with Conan-kun and dad!' But at the pleading look in the young detective's eyes, she faltered. "Oh, okay, Shinichi. I-I promise."

"Thank you." The two held their gaze, arms still tight around each other, until they were interrupted by a long, low whistle.

Suddenly blushing madly and pushing apart, the two remembered that they were not, in fact, alone.

Standing nearby and looking at them in glee were two little boys nudging each other before putting their arms innocently to rest behind their necks and winking at the older detective.

"That was quite a show," Kaito drawled in Conan's lower-tone.

"Yatta na, Kudou! Uh, I mean…umm..Shinichi-niichan…" A blush started to creep onto Hattori's neck as he awkwardly tried to cover his mistake.

Ran, however, didn't pay it much mind. "Who's this, Shinichi? A friend of Conan-kun's?" Ran looked down at the two boys and noticed how Conan seemed to be enjoying talking to this kid-in a way she rarely saw…I mean, he would talk seriously to Haibara, but they didn't normally seem to talk about anything _fun_. Standing next to this new kid, though, he seemed like any normal boy, relaxing with a friend his age…

"Oh, yeah." Shinichi sank down on his heels and put an arm around the pint-size Hattori's shoulders. "Ran, this is Akagawa Soji-kun. He's one of my more distant cousins, but his family's going through some trouble, and I've decided to take care of him for a while."

Ran looked at him suspiciously. "Take care of him? Shinichi, you realize what a big responsibility that is, don't you? You can't just run off on any old case and leave a kid behind, you know…"

"That's not a problem! First of all, Soji-kun here seems to have inherited my genius for deduction!" Shinichi smiled, obviously enjoying this explanation. "Seriously, I bet you'll find him even better than Conan-kun, here!" _Since Conan-kun is now Kaito who, though smart, isn't trained as a detective_, he added to himself.

"Besides, I've already made arrangements with Hakase to watch him for times I really can't be around, but in general, I think you're going to be seeing a lot of both of us." Shinichi finished with a smile.

Deciding that she had run out of good argument points for the time being, Ran smiled down at the new little boy. "Hello, Soji-kun. It's nice to meet you!"

"Yeah, uh hi, Ran-neechan." Hattori mumbled before getting a little push in his back from Shinichi. "Hey! What was that for?" He glared at the man behind him.

"You need to speak up! Haven't I taught you manners?" Shinichi said, grinning widely.

"Shinichi! He's fine! He's just shy. Man, you really have no way with children…" Ran's irritation started to build up again.

"Don't worry, Ran-neechan," Hattori smiled up at her more confidently. "Shinichi-niichan here just doesn't want me to be rude to the person he loves, that's all!" He finished devilishly.

This had its proper reaction, and Shinichi and Ran turned red as tomatoes, unable to make eye contact for about a minute.

"Stupid brat…" Shinichi muttered, but Ran looked at him shyly and smiled. "Um, Shinichi, are you free today? Dad was actually called off on a two-day trip with the police division, so I don't have much to do here except hang out with Conan-kun…but I bet he'd be glad to have Soji-kun along." She said, turning her smile to rest on the boys.

Currently, Kaito was pressing one cheek on the wall, trying to block his free ear with his hands from the other boy's yells of "AHO!" and other strings of kansai-style insults.

Smiling back at her childhood, Ran said "They look just like you and Hattori-kun, don't they Shinichi?"

Again, Ran's astute observation unnerved Shinichi with its accuracy. Getting over his surprise, his expression grew thoughtful and a little sad as he watched the two Apo toxin victims.

There were many reasons that Shinichi had wanted to return to his true form, but as he followed Ran's gaze to rest on his two shrunken friends, it hit him how much he'd been looking forward to being able to look Hattori directly in the eye. To being able to challenge Kaitou Kid as Kudou Shinichi (not just as Tantei-kun), and feel the thrill of a fair challenge.

To be the same age as his friends.

And now, again, that wasn't possible. To say it was aggravating was far too great an understatement. Furthermore, even though he'd had to live as Conan for such a long time, that was quickly becoming a thing of the past. As much as it bothered him, he was grudgingly aware that those two could relate better to each other in their current situation than he could to them.

Shinichi could have punched himself. _What am I doing? Feeling sorry for myself? No, I'm just frustrated. But I guess I should be glad that they have each other. That's great if they can get close through this. I have no right to take that away from them. All I can do is try to find those bastards who did this to them, and set things right._ _And hopefully have some fun in the process. _At this afterthought, he shook his head. That sounded like something Kuroba Kaito would say…was he already rubbing off on him that much?

Although, he realized, that might not be a bad thing if he was going to have to fool the guy's girlfriend… At this though, Shinichi let a guilty eye flit over to rest on Ran's profile. _No, Shinichi. You're not really even going to hang out with that other girl. You just need to make sure she doesn't think Kaito's fallen off the edge of the earth. There's nothing wrong with that, right?_

_Come to think of it…just what kind of person is this Aoko? Well, she's Nakamori-keibu's daughter, but that doesn't tell me much. After all, Kogorou-ojisan would be a bad person to judge Ran off of…_Remembering something about the girl chasing the thief with mops, though, Shinichi started to get a little nervous again_. Great. Just watch. I'll bet she's strong like Ran. Probably tries to keep that guy in line whenever she can… haha. Who knows? Maybe she, Ran and Kazuha could meet up someday and form some scary childhood friend coalition…_

"SHINICHI!" Ran looked none-too pleased, and Hattori and Kaito were sniggering up at him.

"Oh-sorry, Ran…uh, what?"

"Mou…how long were you planning on spacing out? I was trying to get an answer to see if you wanted to do something today! And by TODAY I do mean THIS DAY."

"Oh, yeah, that sounds good. What do you want to do?"

"Well, I'll tell you what we're NOT going to do. We are NOT going to run off and solve some mystery! Is that clear?" Ran's voice turned deadly as she surveyed the three males in the room.

"Oh, sure, Ran…but, I mean…we can't help it if we run into a case, I mean…" but he stopped when she turned the full force of her glare on him. "Got it! No cases…"

He looked down and met Hattori's amused eyes, before turning to Kaito, who looked about to explode with laughter.

"Ne, Ran-neechan," Kaito used his exaggerated little-kid Conan voice to say, "Can we go to a magic show?" He asked sweetly.

Shinichi and Hattori both glared at him.

"A magic show? I thought you didn't like that kind of thing, Conan-kun."

"Oh, well I actually saw this show on tv about an amazing magician and I was working on learning some tricks at Hakase's place!"

"Yeah, I can vouch for him," Shinichi put in. "He seems to be quite a natural for magic tricks, actually, Ran. He even tried to help me do some this morning, but I'm going to have to work on them."

"I only know about good magic shows in Ekoda, though…and there's nothing worth seeing right now, anyway..."

"Ekoda? Why Ekoda?" Ran asked.

Appearing not to have heard her, he suddenly snapped his fingers and smiled. "Oh, I have a better idea! We should go to the zoo!"

"The zoo?" The three stared again at the more-hyper-than-normal Conan.

"Yeah! I hear they have a special exhibit at Ueno Zoo right now where you can hold the birds and pet the goats and…"

Ran raised an eyebrow, missing the aggravated glances the other two were shooting at the boy. Conan really was being different today. Was it because of Shinichi and Soji-kun being here? That had to be it. Normally, she was the only person he seemed to really respond to (besides Hattori-kun) so having a group of only people he meshed well with…I guess she just wasn't used to seeing him that way…?

She decided to go with that. What other explanation could there be?

"Well, Conan-kun, that sounds pretty fun. How about you guys?" She looked at the more silent occupants of the room.

Shinichi just looked at Ran. "You want to go, don't you?"

She nodded.

"Well, then I'm in. Who knows, it could be fun, and SOMEONE obviously has a little too much energy today that he needs to work off." Shinichi continued, glaring at the kid now playing his alter-ego.

Ran giggled. "What about you, Soji-kun? Does the Zoo sound fun?"

Hattori sighed but said, "Well, if you guys are going, I guess it's okay…"

"Come on, Soji-_kun _(he exaggerated the _kun_), it'll be fun." Kaito said, winking at him.

"Okay, you guys go on out. I'll be there in a second!" Ran, cheeks flushing in excitement and anticipation of spending time with Shinichi (and sure, with the kids as well, but they weren't bad company), raced into her room. Grabbing her purse and light jacket, she looked at herself in the mirror and let a smile spread over her whole face. _He's back! I can't believe it! Shinichi's back! I know there are still things he hasn't told me, but they'll come out in good time. I'm in no rush._

With that, she raced out of the apartment to meet the group waiting for her, yelling "Omatase!" when they were within earshot.

Shinichi smiled at her, and without giving herself time to hesitate, Ran slipped her hand into his, her heart beating so hard against her chest that it hurt. She relaxed when he hadn't let go after about 5 seconds, and then, easily, he intertwined her fingers in his own and gripped her hand with gentle pressure.

Cheeks on fire, she looked up to see Shinichi smiling down at her. "Shall we go?" He asked, tugging lightly at her arm.

Ran nodded and they set off, ignoring the comments of the smirking boys behind them.

* * *

Well, there you are! Yay for a little romance :D

I hope you liked it!

Anyway, please remember to review (if you haven't already done so-or even if you have)! Arigatou~~~!


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7-Winged Dance**

I do not own Meitantei Conan.

Sorry for the hold-up on this update! School has been very busy, and I honestly wrenched a lot of time I should have been reading articles for my Japanese seminar to do this...but it was worth it! I hope you agree...

Anyway, let me know what you think! Please review! Again, thanks for all the reviews up till now! :D You guys are awesome

**_R&R~! ENJOY! 3_**

* * *

As they passed through the large entrance to Ueno Zoo, Kaito started shaking with excitement, and then turned with an angelic smile to look back at his three babysitters-all of which were his age, though only one looked it. "We're here! See, that wasn't so bad!"

Hattori muttered something under his breath, and Shinichi made a short, bark-like laugh. "Oh, really, Conan-kun? I believe that was just about the most painful 20-minute subway ride of my life!"

He glared at the little boy who was the spitting image of his own shrunken self, albeit with a much more demon-like expression flashing behind his eyes than Shinichi could have ever imagined seeing on the face which, until so recently, had been his own.

Kaito grinned sheepishly and responded in his most innocent voice, "I'm sorry, Shinichi-niichan…Ran-neechan, if I embarrassed you. I was just really excited to try out my new magic tricks I learned, and besides! I think I chose colors that suited everyone pretty well!"

_After ten minutes of confinement in the underground train, the boy magician had been unable to satisfy himself with making occasional odd noises emerge from every nook and cranny of the car (each successive noise earning him an increasingly fierce glare from the older detective, which seemed impossible after a while) and he decided to try one of his old fallback standards (particularly useful for geometry class): turning unsuspecting civilians' hair shades ranging from neon green to blazing magenta…_

_Needless to say, Shinichi was forced to step in to control the situation (enough experience hanging around police officers-not to mention murder victims and their families-had made him pretty good at calming angry and/or confused crowds). After a sickeningly fake public apology from "Conan," complete with astounding crocodile tears, the troublemakers decided to get off a few stops earlier than planned, preferring to brave the extra few miles of exercise to even another minute cooped up with a crowd of understandably angry victims of Kaito's latest pranks…_

Kaito smiled mischievously at Hattori before turning back to the "adults." "Ran-neechan, can Soji-kun and I go ahead? There's a fun bird exhibit not too far away I want to show him!"

"Oh, sure, Conan-kun! Let's meet up in an hour back by the fountain up there, though, okay?" Ran smiled, failing to notice Hattori who was frantically shaking his head back and forth, muttering "Hell no."

Ignoring the little detective, Kaito cast another glance back, quickly saying "Okay, Ran-neechan!" and snatched Hattori's hand, dragging him off while laughing at his feeble attempts to slow him with insults.

Ran smiled as she watched them run off before noticing a little tug on her arm. Blushing, she remembered that she was still clutching Shinichi's hand (they'd only let go momentarily on the subway for Shinichi to go into law-and-order-protector mode) and he'd suddenly stopped moving. Thinking that maybe he was tired of her holding onto him (god knows her hand was getting a little sweaty-_oh no, what if he thinks I'm gross?) _Ran self-consciously tried to pull her hand from his grip, but he held tight to her.

Having caught the slightly suggestive wink the tiny thief had cast him before he was out of sight, Shinichi was well aware of Kaito's intentions in leaving the two of them alone. He shook his head, smiling despite himself. _Barou_…

"Shinichi?" Slightly embarrassed to have been caught lost in thought by Ran, Shinichi smiled nervously at her questioning eyes.

"Oh, sorry, Ran. Just thinking about this really complicated alibi this guy gave in a case a while back…that one really had me stumped for a while…" Shinichi trailed off, laughing a little awkwardly.

Ran rolled her eyes and ripped her hand from his to position it on her hip. "Oh well isn't that a surprise, you detective maniac!" Shinichi looked up and was glad to see amusement in her eyes despite her irate tone.

Her expression made a warm, comfortable feeling fill his chest, and his nerves smoothed out instantly. Holding her gaze, he smiled at her genuinely. "Actually, Ran, now that we're here, there's a spot I want to show you. Will you come with me?" Shinichi held out his hand to her, and she slowly took it in hers, smiling back up at him.

* * *

"OI! You, KID. Or…thief or…KAITO!" Hattori was getting really fed-up with his tour guide. Just how far was the little brat going to drag him? It was with a jolt that he had to remind himself, once again, that he, too, looked just like any other _brat, _now.

Finally deigning to respond at the last mode of address, Kaito turned, beaming, to his companion. "Yes, Hei-chan?"

"Don't call me that." It was shocking how low, cold and threatening the kansai detective's now normally soprano voice could sound.

"But it fits you so well!" The thief pouted.

Hattori pinched the bridge of his nose with his left hand until he calmed down enough to remember what he had meant to say in the first place. Upon remembering, his eyes narrowed and he looked down to his right hand before moving what he hoped was a glare fierce enough to burn the thief's eyes out. Again, in his slow, low growl, he asked "Just how much longer are you planning to hold my hand?"

To this, the thief just beamed even more brightly, spinning a little (while maintaining his firm hold on the other boy's hand) before resting a free hand on his shoulder. He looked the boy seriously in the eyes. "If I don't, you might run away from me, and I don't want to lose, you, Hei-chan." A smile cracked onto his lips.

"Aho! Keep pushing it, and I'll make sure you never get to see this handsome face of mine ever again," he smirked, despite himself. The thief was, he had to admit, moderately entertaining.

Kaito matched his smirk and tightened his grip on his hand. "I'm not letting you go until I choose to, you know. Kaitou Kid always gets what he wants." He winked. "Besides, it's totally normal for two 7-year olds to hold hands…we'd attract more attention if we were to get separated. You know, with people worrying about a single lost little child and all. This way, they'll just imagine we ran off a little ahead of our parents." He winked at him again, eyes glinting in the sunlight beneath the rimmed glasses.

Hattori sighed, resigning himself to be pulled along by the stubborn thief. "Why did ya want to come here, anyway? Do you really like animals all that much?" He asked, genuinely curious, but also suspecting some ulterior motive.

The thief, however, was more innocent than he realized. "I'll show you!" The joy and excitement in Kaito's voice were so obvious and genuine that Hattori couldn't help smile a little. Following him along, they came to a large caged-in garden. Even from a distance, Hattori could see something moving inside-some fluttering, and flashes of white. Looking at the thief uncertainly, Kaito beamed back at him.

"This is the exhibit I wanted to go to! We can go in!"

Getting the idea, Hattori hesitated. It's not that he _minded _birds, but he'd prefer a good old dog any time of the day. Seeing the expectant look on Kaito's face which looked just as his best friend's had until so recently, Hattori melted despite himself. "Fine…"

"YAY! Let's go, Hei-chan!"

Rolling his eyes, Hattori let the exuberant thief drag him in before his hand was finally released from the death grip. "I really hope this name isn't going to stick…" But even as he said it, he knew he was just sealing his own fate with his words. Hattori sighed.

_Oh, man, I wonder what I'm going to do about Kazuha? If she thinks I'm with Kudou on a case, she's bound to call nee-chan once in a while and…oh shit…she'll tell her she hasn't seen me. What if she tells her about the little dark-haired kid who speaks like me? I guess I'll just to talk to Kudou about this tonight. Hopefully together we should be able to figure something out…_

A large flapping sound knocked Hattori out of his reverie. Eyes suddenly popping, he looked at where his…friend...for lack of a better word…was standing a minute ago. He now looked like a scarecrow, totally covered in white birds. _Doves_.

For a second, Hattori could have imagined the boy before him was decked out in his full Kaitou Kid splendor, surrounded by his own trusty birds, but the whole "costume" was moving.

A bright smile was visible under the flock of white feathery creatures, and, as if on cue, the majority of the doves flew off at once, and Hattori followed them with his eyes. He was shocked to realize that they weren't flying every which way …the doves (which Kaito couldn't have met before, could he have? He hadn't had time to train them…) were performing what looked like a choreographed mid-air dance, weaving and interweaving, circling and twirling before finally breaking apart and flying off to their various roosts.

Hattori was transfixed. A little chuckle brought him back, and he stared, wide-eyed, at the thief.

"What did you think of the show? That one was especially for you…Hei-chan." He winked, and laughed at the kansai boy's scowl.

"You do realize that I am not fond of such…casual…forms of address?" Hattori said dryly, watching the thief's reaction for a change.

No effect. He was in poker face mode, and responded evenly, "Well, I AM fond of them, so we even each other out." Before Hattori could get in any kind of retort, Kaito continued. "Would you like to learn some tricks of my trade? Come here." The last was said in a strangely commanding voice, and Hattori found himself approaching the thief before he knew what was happening.

"You have to be good to animals…"

"I am!" Hattori started indignantly, but was quickly shushed by the magician-thief.

"I'm not saying you aren't. I just mean that some people don't _really _give animals the time of day-to see how well they can work with you if you just take the time to understand them."

This was a side of Kaito Hattori had never seen before. He sounded serious and knowledgeable-though not obnoxiously so like some bastards he knew…darkly, the image of Hakuba Sagaru crossed his mind…This new Kaito was somewhat, dare he say it? Intriguing...

Kaito grabbed his hand again, and Hattori was about to pull back, but the grip was firm. "Hold your palm out like this. Straighten your hand a little more…good, perfect." Kaito's voice was patient and firm as he instructed Hattori about…whatever he was doing… "Now, this girl right here has a particularly even temperament. Keep your hand like that, I'm going to hand her over."

Not able to come up with any excuse, Hattori just let the thief do as he wished, and suddenly he felt the odd sensation of a large bird gently wrapping her talons around the side of his hand. Looking at the bird, she seemed to cock her head a little, as if inspecting her new perch. "Hi there…" Hattori said hesitantly, feeling a little stupid talking to a bird.

"Here." Kaito had put something in Hattori's hand before closing his fist around it.

Suspiciously suspecting what he'd received from the thief, he was surprised to see what looked like ripped up bits of apricots.

"Try holding that hand out to her. Remember to keep your hand straight. Otherwise, she might nip you unintentionally." Kaito continued in his mature-ish teaching voice. It was slightly disconcerting, not hearing him cracking jokes and acting like an idiot for once.

The bird seemed to have noticed what she could only imagine was a snack for her, and she suddenly flapped from one hand to the other, finding her footing again before pecking away at the little bits of fruit. Gently, Hattori reached up his hand to pet the bird, who didn't seem to mind. In fact, she seemed to nuzzle into the crook of his palm a little, if he wasn't imagining it.

He absentmindedly continued to stroke the dove, the thought crossing his mind that his usual hands were probably too big and clumsy to stroke the bird gently enough. With a slightly wry smile, he thought-well, here's ONE thing I can do in this form…

He felt a soft hand on his shoulder, and looked to see Kaito, eyes totally even with his, looking at him with interest. "You're good with her."

"It's calming, isn't it, being with animals? To them, it doesn't matter what your reasons are-you don't have to explain yourself. As long as you're kind and gentle, they understand your true intentions, you know? Appearances don't mean a damn thing to them."

He wore a gentle smile as he surveyed the birds, but Hattori thought he could hear a touch of bitterness in the thief's voice. He could easily have imagined it, though, for poker-face was back on as quickly as it seemed to have left. "If you continue to like what I teach you, Hei-chan, you could join me as Kaitou Kid 2 when we get back to normal! What do you say?" He winked at him.

"What about Kudou? Isn't he going to be Kaitou Kid 2?" Hattori asked, smiling at the thought. Honestly, Kudou Shinichi playing Kuroba Kaito-and especially Kaitou Kid-it was a stretch, and he had trouble even imagining how it might work…or so he would have said, but that suit had fit him so well the night before. _What it only last night? Man time flies quickly…_

Kaito seemed to have collapsed on the floor when he had remembered meitantei Kudou Shinichi's surprising compliance with the whole idea and was currently rolling around. It was crazy, but man would he do anything to see it…

Kaito hopped back up to his feet before turning to Hattori and smiling. "Hey, thanks for coming here with me. I felt like I could be Kaito Kid for a minute again, you know?" He kept that wide smile plastered on his face, but Hattori could tell Kaito's feelings were more complicated than he was letting on. Did he sense some regret? Some jealousy? Just how would he deal with no longer getting to play the semi-noble thief?

"Well, it wasn't QUITE as awful as I thought he would be," Hattori started off, hands in his pockets, towards the door of the bird house.

"You liar, you. You loved it! Come on, say it!" Kaito jogged beside him, grinning at him expectantly.

"Aw, that's it!"

"Huh?" The thief looked at him a little nervously. "What's it, Hei-ji-kun?" At the glint in the detective's eye, Kaito lengthened the surname.

"I realize you're going to continue to expose us to your 'magician' tricks anyway, so there's no way I can avoid that, but…"

"TRICKS?" Kaito sounded astonished at the disrespect with which Hattori was referring to his art form.

Ignoring him, Hattori continued. "…You haven't been a very believable Conan so far, and what would you say if Kudou were going to slip up trying to be you? What if he ate a plate-full of fish, or called Aoko Ran or something?" Hattori grinned devilishly.

"…he wouldn't…" Kaito shivered a little at the scenarios Hattori had just thrown at him.

"Well, if you want to make sure he doesn't, maybe you should take being little tantei-kun a little more seriously. What do you say? You teach us about being an obnoxious, over-excited magician-thief, and we'll teach you how to be a composed and brilliant mini detective." Hattori winked at him.

"Will you kiss me if I do?"

"NANI?" Hattori stumbled back, almost tripping over a little walkway-curb, but Kaito grabbed his hand and managed to steady him. Gently patting his hand with one of his (while holding it in the other) Kaito smiled at him and said "Oh, you know I'm just having fun with you, my handsome detective. Go ahead, start your lessons. I'm willing." He winked at him.

Hattori rolled his eyes, but decided, _what the hell? He's just a huge AHO and there's no helping that… _"Let's start with something Kudou taught me-it was the second time we ever met_-_first time we talked. I had almost convicted the wrong person, all because I was too caught up in my own stupid desire to beat Kudou to solving the case-but here's what he told me: '_Shinjitsu wa itsumo hitotsu._ (There is only one truth).' I've respected him so much ever since that day…that's his burning conviction, and it's led him to solve so many seemingly unsolvable crimes."

Kaito studied Hattori's face gently as he listened to his story. "I see…" he said softly. "Shijitsu wa itsumo hitostsu, huh?" Hattori was surprised to hear how seriously he seemed to be taking this whole thing. "Well, then, meitantei, let me deduce something about you-the one truth… I thought you'd been acting strangely for a while-a little too sensitive, perhaps, and making nervous-looking movements…"

_What are you getting it? _Hattori wondered, expecting nothing good. Unconsciously, he pulled a hand up to cover his mouth-just in case the stupid thief tried something. He would definitely regret it.

"You…no doubt…have to go to the bathroom!" The little thief squealed in high-pitched glee.

Stunned, Hattori stared at the babbling idiot before him. He was right, though, which baffled him. He hadn't even noticed, he'd been so distracted. Maybe there was hope for him yet…no. No way.

"Come on, Hei-chan! This isn't something to dawdle about! This is urgent!" And before he could object, Kaito had once again snatched Hattori's hand in his and was dragging him off towards the nearest rest station.

_Maybe, every once in a while, birds are okay..._a smile settling itself on his features as he let himself be pulled along.

* * *

Thanks for reading! And again, PLEASE review and let me know what you think :) Again, this story is kind of creating itself-I never know what's going to happen until I start writing, but I have a general idea of various scenarios I want to draw out.

Again, sorry for the wait, but I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know! Yay Kaito and Heiji, btw

tess4aria 3


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8: Intimations of a Dream**_

EPIC FAIL. I wrote this...and then LOST THE WHOLE THING and had to re-write it...sucks...hopefully it didn't suffer too much from it being my second attempt at it...anyway...

I am SO SORRY that I haven't updated this in so long... I *gulp* wrote another story... For the Love of the Moonlight...Check it out if you have the time! It's KaiSHIN, though, so it might not be your thing, but it's sure been fun to write!

That said, I hope you enjoy this! The long-awaited continuation!

_**PLEASE, please, R&R! Thanks soooo much! :D**_

* * *

_He's barely said a word since he started dragging me off this way, _Ran mused_. _The two of them had been walking along a little winding path which kept taking them higher and higher, crowds thinning out more and more until they seemed to have the wooded area to themselves. It was really beautiful, exotic flowers and oddly-shaped trees framing their way. It would have been perfect, but…she tried again to smile up at Shinichi, but frowned as he just continued to stare ahead blankly.

Ran was so happy to just be able see him again, to spend time with him, but… she still had so many questions. So much had happened since he'd left, and she'd imagined so many different scenarios for when he returned. But now that he was here, she didn't know where to begin. A restlessness had started up inside of her which was getting worse with each minute the detective stayed silent.

"Shinichi? Is everything okay?" She tried. He jumped a little, finally turning to look at her. She met his eyes with slight concern as she saw, straight-on, how spacey he looked.

"Huh? Yeah, Ran?"

"Mou…you've been spacing out ever since we left the gates! Is there something on your mind?"

"Oh, uh…no, Ran! Sorry!" Sheepishly rubbing the back of his head and laughing nervously, Ran just narrowed her eyes further.

"For being a detective, you sure are remarkably bad at knowing how to divert suspicion from yourself, you know…"

"Well, as you said-I'm a detective! I see through others' lies, I'm not like that dumb Kaitou Kid who walks into danger pretending to be someone he's not on purpose…" trailing off, he paled a little bit as he remembered his current 'assignment.'

"Hah! So you admit you're lying!"

"No! I just…" Sighing, he turned to her. "You're right that I have things on my mind, but would you believe me if I said they might be related to that case I'm trying to keep quiet? I can't tell you right now, but I will someday. I promise, so just wait…" He trailed off at her expression.

Ran didn't respond right away. Shinichi's heart plummeted when he saw the pained grimace forming on her face. When she spoke again, her voice was low. "It's always the same, Shinichi. If only I'd just wait...just wait a little longer…now, even though you're back, I still have to wait for you to get back to normal!" Shinichi's heart froze at the pain evident in her voice. "I'm sick of it, Shinichi! I'm sick of the secrecy!"

"I-I know, Ran…I'm sorry…"

Tears were glistening in her eyes, threatening to fall. "How do I know, Shinichi? You tell me. I want so badly to trust you-to believe you when you say you'll be back soon, but every time… How do I know you're sincere?"

"Ran!" Shinichi stepped forward, and clasped his hands on her shoulders, just staring into her eyes, willing her to understand. "Ran, I know the horrible pain I've put you through…It's not like it's been great for me, either, but you're right. At least I've known what's been going on."

The sincerity in his voice stopped the icy retort she'd been readying. Her heart clenched at the burning look in his eyes, trying to communicate to her what he couldn't in words. She'd never seen those familiar blue orbs look this way…there was something about them…a maturity and a depth she'd never seen before, that was different, and it froze her to the spot. She couldn't pull away.

"Ran, listen to me." He started softly, his eyes shifting a little, but he sighed and returned to lock his gaze on hers. "Please, just here me out. To be honest, I'm terrified," a short, humorless laugh escaped his lips. "Terrified that after all of the secrecy, everything I've put you through…that it's too late. How should I expect you to trust me, now? You're absolutely right that over and over again, I have told you to wait, and yet, I've only given you vague reasons…I don't blame you at all for doubting me…"

His look hardened, suddenly, a determined, fierce glow lighting up his eyes. "But I'm not going to give up on you, Ran, no matter what. I love you… Even if you tell me it's already too late, nothing will change my feelings. I love you, Ran. I have loved you and will continue to, and that's why I've selfishly asked you to wait. I can't handle life without you, Ran."

She felt as if her heart had stopped, as if her mind and body were disconnected. All she could see was the piercing blue of his eyes and…tears? Was Shinichi crying? He was leaning closer to her, his eyes searching her face for some reaction, alight with anxiety.

"I love you too, Shinichi," she whispered, and he closed the gap between them, capturing her mouth in his. It was a chaste kiss, but through it, the feelings they had kept locked inside, always wondering about but never able to admit-even openly enough to themselves-were released, conveyed entirely through some magical connection, fusing them at locked lips and eyes.

* * *

"This way, Hei-chan!" Groaning at the surname, Hattori let the excitable mini-Kid pull him along.

"Could you at least PLEASE tell me what's so damn important?" He hissed.

Stopping suddenly and resting his chin on a finger, the much more evil-looking Conan seemed to consider his fellow shrunken-teenager. With a wide grin, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a little remote control and some sort of small device (which looked suspiciously like a spy-camera) with a rotor-wing attached…

Hattori just lifted an eyebrow… "Please don't tell me we're going to be peeping toms.

"Not _really…_" He said, his grin widening even further… "I just thought we could do our friends a favor and document the beginning of their long-awaited love affair!"

"Dude. Kudou will kill you."

"Oh, Hei-chan! Does that mean you're worried about me? Well, then, why don't YOU man the remote control. He wouldn't hurt his best friend, would he now?"

Hattori laughed harshly. "Yeah, right. If he found out I took part in something like that, he'd kick that soccer ball of his in my face without a second thought-I doubt he'd do much to adjust for my height, either…"

Eyes and mouth widening in mock surprise at the discussion of Kudou's violent side, Kaito just chuckled and put his arm around Hattori's shoulders. "That's if he finds out. You forget who you're working with."

"And you're forgetting who you're going up against." Hattori rolled his eyes. "Kudou's power of observation is totally different from normal humans'."

"And I'm SURE there's NOTHING he could be doing right now tthat would distract him…" Kaito said schemingly.

Despite himself, curiosity and the bad influence of Kaito were starting to get the better of Hattori. After all, teasing Kudou about his relationship with Neechan was one of his favorite hobbies. A smirk made its way onto his face which Kaito matched plus some.

Gravely placing a hand on Hattori's shoulder, Kaito grinned and said, "Okay, it's settled. When we're back to normal, you're going to be my very first public sidesick! Poor Shin-chan…until he proves himself to be a little stronger in the prank department, he's just going to have to run espionage missions as my sidekick-double." His eyes took on a glassy, faraway look as he lost himself in expectations of the fun days the future would no doubt hold.

Hattori rolled his eyes, not wanting to add to the thief's weird fantasties. "Okay, Kaito, listen up. Sorry to inform you, but we're not doing things just your way. You're giving me a little thief-training, so you have to have some detective-training. Your first assignment being... figure out where they went-WITHOUT the help of any gadgets!"

"W-wait…that's not fair! Tantei-kun always uses the glasses and stuff…"

"Which is just to save time. It would take Kudou no time at all to figure out something like this. So begin, Kai-chan," he said patronizingly.

"Don't tell me YOU know…" he eyes the dark-skinned boy curiously. "It's not like they mentioned anywhere specific…"

Hattori just smirked at him. "Oh, I have a pretty good idea. If you just think about how they are together, the layout of this zoo, and both of their personalities, even a KID could figure it out," he laughed a little. "Certainly it would be no problem for _Conan-kun."_

"Hmmm….." Tapping his foot on the ground, he jumped up suddenly, looking as if a bright idea had come to mind.

Slightly impressed, Hattori said, "You figured it out, did you? That was faster than I thought…maybe I should have given you a harder…"

"Ice cream!"

"W-what?"

"That's just what I need to get my brain working. Times like these, you know…nothing better than some sugar!"

"Um...I really disagree..." Hattori looked a little nervous. Kaito was this hyper without sugar…just what kind of cosmic disaster would happen if he actually ingested some-oh crap, too late. He was off.

"Kaito! Get BACK HERE! Conan doesn't like ice cream!"

Turning back to face Hattori, but not slowing his pace as he ran backwards (miraculously avoiding hitting anyone in the crowded zoo), Kaito responded "Well, then I better go ahead and get my fill of it now before I have to suffer in front of anyone else who knows his habits!"

Shaking his head but following after him, Hattori didn't look up until something cold touched his hand. "For you," said the little glasses-wearing boy with a toothy grin.

"Huh? What's this for?_"_

"Oh, well I just got to thinking...maybe this way you can be hyper WITH me! That would be a lot more fun. And if Ran asks, I can just say you convinced me to have ice cream and blame my hyperactivity on that! How about that for a plan?"

Hattori shook his head and sighed. "I guess that works." Taking the ice cream, he tried it and had to admit, chocolate mint on such a hot day tasted really good.

"I also just wanted to thank you for hanging out with me."

"Hm?" Hattori looked up from his ice cream, surprised by Kaito's suddenly sincere and serious tone.

"I know I joke around a lot and all, but even I can see this whole transformation could be pretty shitty," he said walking along. "But it really hasn't crossed my mind that much-or at least, it hasn't bothered me TOO much…and I know for a fact it's because you're here."

Glancing at Hattori, he quickly added, "Of course I'm not glad this happened to you, but_…_I don't know, if none of this had ever happened, we might never have gotten to know each other and when I think that way...I don't know, this transformation just doesn't seem to have been such a bad thing after all."

Walking along a little with his ice cream in hand, Kaito turned to look at Hattori. "I had a lot of fun with you today, Hei-chan, and it got me to thinking...what do you say if we work together to do everything we can to make our time in these little bodies as bearable (and Shin-chan's time as embarassing) as possible? What do you say?" With a mischievous glint in his eye, he held his spare hand out to Hattori to shake on it.

Hattori sighed a little. Leave it to Kaito to look at this whole body-shrinking thing, not in terms of how to get through without being constantly humiliated and depressed, but in how they could turn it into a fun adventure... A slight smile creeping onto his face despite himself, he sighed and took Kaito's hand. "Only when Kudou deserves it."

"Um, excuse me? I'd say detectives basically ALWAYS deserve it...nosy, goody-goody critics..."

Hattori coughed.

"Oh, I don't mean you, Hei-chan! You're the exception! Well, come to think of it, Tantei-kun's an exception, too, but he's hit me one too many times with that soccer ball-from-hell for me to consider him totally innocent."

Chuckling a little at that, Hattori decided it was time to get to business. "Okay. You have your ice cream. Now tell me-where are Kudou and Neechan?"

"Hmmm..." Kaito plopped down to lean against a little fence, sucking on his ice cream as he thought about it, Hattori smiling and sitting down next to him.

"Well, if it were me, I would definitely take my date to the bird house and then for ice cream, but..."

Hattori choked a little.

"Oh, Hei-chan! You figured it out! You've enjoyed this date, though, haven't you?"

"D-DATE? You AHO! What the hell..." Shooting him a glare, the tension soon rolled off of him as he saw the goofy grin still plastered on Kaito's face. _Oh well, he's just an AHO. No use in worrying about him._

"Oh! I forgot something, though!" Looking up, a rose suddenly sprung out of Kaito's fist in front of Hattori's face. A green rose. "For you, Hei-chan! Isn't it pretty? it matches your eyes!"

Snatching the rose with a growl, Hattori elbowed Kaito in the gut, laughing as the thief only just managed to save his ice cream from certain doom.

"Okay, so rather than what you would do if you were a crazy, delusional magician-thief on a date, you now need to think about what a certain brilliant, stubborn, slightly uptight detective would do. Can you do that, _Conan-kun_?" He asked, laughing a little.

Kaito pouted, crossing his arms a little. "Why does Shin-chan's personality have to be so different from mine? We look alike! Why couldn't he have just taken Ran-chan for a nice hot dog or something?"

Seeing the glare directed at him from the Kansai detective, Kaito resumed his task. "Okay, fine, well let's see...he'd probably take her somewhere quiet...and romantic, right?"

Hattori smiled slightly to encourage him to continue.

"Okay, well I can basically see most of the zoo from up here, and it's all pretty busy and full of people...hmm. Except for maybe that foresty area over there. Is that right?" His voice jumped a little in excitement.

"Heh, I knew I should have given you something more difficult. Oh well-you took long enough for me to finish my ice cream cone without rushing, at least. Good job, though, I suppose."

"Thanks, Hei-chan!" Giving him a quick hug around the middle (and getting quickly pushed off) he said, "Shall we? We don't want to miss the show!"

Hattori laughed a little, and Kaito linked their arms together before taking off, dragging him none too delicately towards the forest.

_

* * *

_As she drifted into wakefulness, her heart deflated. _I guess it was a dream after all...Shinichi coming back, saying he...he loved me_...Ran kept her eyes squeezed shut, not wanting to ascertain that it really had been nothing more than an illusion. What's that warm feeling? Cracking her eyes in curiosity, sunlight was streaming down between branches overhead, but she knew that wasn't what she was feeling. THe warmth that surrounded her was this amazing, impossible warmth, making her feel safer than she could remember ever having felt before.

Smiling, she buried her face further into her soft pillow...and she felt warm arms wrap around her back, pulling her close. Heart stopping, she jerked her head up to see Shinichi smiling down at her.

"Ohayou," he said, bringing his forehead down to rest against hers. "I'm a little hurt, Ran. You fell asleep when I was in the middle of a telling you about an extremely interesting case!" Looking up at him, she saw his face break into a smile. Her heart leapt in happiness. It wasn't a dream!

"Oh, well I am just SO sorry about that, Shincihi, I can't even tell you," she said sarcastically, laughing.

For the the last hour, they had been sitting in this little grassy knoll off of the main (basically abandoned) path, Ran leaning back against Shinichi, his arms around her neck, head buried in her hair, just talking about...practically everything. Everything except, of course, for the big secrets-anything concerning Conan or the Black Organization. But really, it surprised them how easily they could talk so soon after confessing. After so many years of feelings hidden and feelings denied, everything was suddenly out in the open, and there they were, talking freely about the first time they each saw the other as more than a friend...about the loneliness they'd felt the past few years... about Ran's continued determination and foiled efforts to get her parents back together...about Shinichi's parents' crazy antics.

This is how they were situated when Ran had dozed off.

Now back in the same position, Ran felt another thrill of sublime happiness, of utter content rush through her. She snuggled a little further into Shinichi, who pulled her closer, embracing her again. She looked up and once again his eyes had the piercing quality she'd noticed before... That gaze which made him look older, which revealed a depth to him she was still not fully aware of...and some other look she couldn't describe, which might her chest clench up, heart pounding against her rib cage. Gently, Shinichi leaned down again and, one hand around her back to brace her, leaned in to kiss her, his other arm cradling her head, fingers twisting in her soft hair.

BANG!

"Ouch!"

"AHO! What the hell?"

"Oomph, geroff me!"

Shinichi glared dangerously at his shrunken friends...who had just fallen from a low tree branch...

"I told you we should have just gone with your original plan and used that device!"

"But Hei-chan, we weren't able to see anything that way, and it was a great show, after all!" Kaito snickered.

"Hei-chan?" Ran asked, looking confused.

"It still would have hurt a lot less..."

They stopped, suddenly, at the shadow suddenly looming over them.

"Conan-kun...Soji-kun..." He annunciated their names with terrifying iciness. "What...the HELL were you doing?"

"Shinichi! You can't talk to kids that way!" Ran's concerned big-sisterly voice shot up.

Suddenly picking them up by their shirt collars, Shinichi brought them close... "We'll talk later," he growled.

"Really, Shinichi! Let go of them! They're just kids!" Racing forward, Ran snatched each 'child' from Shinichi's grasp, placing them on the ground and running her hands through their hair... "Are you guys okay? That looked like a bad fall! Sorry if Shinichi scared you!" She turned around to glare at Shinichi, Kaito sending him a huge smirk from behind her back that Shinichi returned in equal fervor.

"Don't worry, Ran-neechan!" 'Conan-kun' said angelically. "Shinichi-niichan is just mad that we interrupted your kiss!"

Ran blushed bright red and Shinichi paled before saying in unnatural calm... "Conan-kun, if you don't shut...I mean...if you want me to every play magician with you again, you'll never do something like this again, are we clear?"

Kaito gulped, pouting a little bit. "Yes, Shinichi-niichan..."

Shaking her head at the dynamics around her, but sensing no serious tension, Ran just stood up and said, "Well, should we get going now?"

"Sure," Shinichi smiled at her.

Ran crouched down to clasp one of each of the boys' hands in hers, and set off, Hattori shooting an apologetic glance back at Shinichi, Kaito shooting back an impressive smirk...which Shinichi returned to such an impressive degree that he shuddered. _Man! I have to watch out, or he'll have a better KID face than I do by the time this is all over! _

* * *

When they arrived back at the detective agency, Ran finally released her death-grip on the two 'little boys.' "Tadaima!" She sang out. She turned to Shinichi. "Thanks for today. I had a great time...when will we see you next?"

"Probably tomorrow," Shinichi responded, smiling. "Speaking of which...I need to have a word with Conan-kun." Stepping forward without a pause, he grabbed Kaito's hand and made an effort to drag him gently until they were out of earshot, then dropping his fake smile as he crouched down to meet his eyes. "You are an ass, you know. But lucky for you, you'll get to wait to really deal with me until tomorrow, after which point, I'm sure Hattori will have told me everything I need to know."

"Sorry, but Hei-chan won't betray me!"

Looking bemused, Shinichi said... "What is this Hei-chan business? I can't imagine he appreciates it..." Despite himself, a smile formed on his lips at the thought of Hattori's protests over the far-too-affectionate name. "Though I must admit...it kind of fits him right now..." He chuckled a little.

"I know, right? It's perfect! And I think he's getting used to it..."

"Look, I'll be back to get you tomorrow, okay? If anything happens, call me or Hakase anytime. Seriously, let me know if ANYTHING is wrong."

"Hmm...Shin-chan, you might want to re-think those words...I can imagine a lot of "things wrong" you wouldn't want to hear about." He grinned up at him. "Anyway, thanks for your concern, but I'll be fine! I'll take care of little Ran-chan, rest assured!"

Shinichi glared at him.

"Hey, hey...learn to take a joke, Shin-chan! Seriously!"

"Oi...can you PLEASE try to make an effort to use the appropriate names, right now? Unless, of course, you think it would be cool for me to slip up when I'm on Kaito-duty." Shinichi smirked a kid-worthy smile.

Fear flashed through Kaito's eyes. "Hai, hai. I read you crystal clear...Okay, enough lecturing, metaintei. Why don't you just go and kiss your girlfriend goodnight?' He asked, winking lightly at him.

Recovering from a slight flush to bop Kaito lightly on the head, Shinichi just said, "Shut it...barou..." But a smile suddenly flashed back onto Shinichi's face as he swept Kaito up and slung him over his shoulder. "This is what you get," he whispered.

"Shinichi-niiiichan!" Kaito whined, and Ran came forward instantly.

"Shinichi!"

"What? He said he wanted to ride on my shoulders, but he got all freaked out when I actually did it. Honest!" Shinichi laughed, waving an arm back and forth defensively.

Setting Kaito down, Shinichi grinned and ruffled his hair before turning back to face Ran. "Goodnight, then. I'll call tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay...night, Shinic-" she was cut off as he wrapped her in his arms, giving her a quick kiss before pulling back and smiling at her once again.

"Night...okay, Soji-kun! Let's get going!"

"Hai!" Hattori ran to catch up with Shinichi, his plan to smirk at him the whole way home slightly dampened by the tackle he got from Kaito and the hug from Ran...

Things were really going to get interesting from here on out...though whether in a good way or not...it was hard to tell.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think! :D I'll try to get the next update out MUCH SOONER...again, sorry about this one, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please review!

Thanks!

tess4aria


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9: Ball Rolling**_

So sorry for the slow update! Oh, and thanks so much for the reviews! :D

I do not own Meitantei Conan

**_Please R&R!_**

* * *

The instant he was through the door, Hattori made a bee-line for and collapsed on one of the Kudou mansion's several large couches. Legs sticking out in odd directions, eyes closed, he didn't move as Shinichi shook his head, chuckling, and flipped on the light before sitting down on the couch beside him.

"Rough day, huh?" He said ironically.

"That AHO Kaito is going to be the death of me…" he grumbled, not opening his eyes.

"I don't know…you seemed to be enjoying yourself well enough, Hattori." He glowered at him slightly.

Cracking one eye open and smirking, Hattori said: "Well, what can I say, Kudou? Special circumstances, you know. But seriously…" His grin widened and his eyes narrowed tauntingly. "That was a pretty hot kiss you had going on there. Didn't know you had it in you, Kudou."

"B-Barou!" Shinichi yelled, jumping back before yanking Hattori up by his foot and glaring at his surprised, upside-down face. Shinichi's lips then curved into a grin. "You should know better than to pick a fight right now, Hattori," he started dangerously. "I'm more than happy to give you a taste of your own medicine."

"Akan! Akan! Fine, Kudou, I'm sorry! Now drop me, dammit!"

Dropping him back onto the couch, he muttered "Maybe I should have given it more thought before I suggested you live with me…"

But then noticing the dark shadow that flashed across Hattori's eyes, making what remained of a smile look strained, Shinichi felt a pang of guilt and crouched down, placing a hand on one of his shoulders, looking him in the eye. "Hey, you know I didn't mean that, right Hattori?"

"Wha? Yeah, of course, Kudou," he responded, forcing his smile to widen which only made Shinichi give his other shoulder a squeeze as well.

"Hattori, I mean it. I know it sucks, but you're going to get through this, okay? Who knows? That medicine we brought Haibara might have been the key she needed, and she'll have you back in no time."

"Hm…" Hattori didn't meet his eyes as he listened. It sounded great and all, but he knew better, and knew Kudou's voice well enough that he could hear the uncertainty in it. A chill washed over him, and he shivered a little, breaking through some floodgate of pressure that had been building inside of him without his knowledge.

Overwhelmed by a combination of physical and mental exhaustion, he suddenly he felt very weak; his knees could barely support him. He saw the floor racing up to meet him when strong, warms arms caught him, bringing him in, and suddenly he found himself pressed against Shinichi's chest.

Hattori's heart began to beat rapidly in shock. "Ku-Kudou! What are you doing?"

Shinichi didn't respond right away, but gripped him a little more tightly, letting one hand settle on the back of his head.

Hattori's brain had shut down to the point that he didn't even consider wrenching himself from his best friend's grip. Besides…the warmth and concern washing over him this way were more comforting than he could have possibly imagined. _What's up with this body? I'd never be so weak normally..._

"I'm sorry, Hattori…" Shinichi said in a low voice. "I'm sorry that you were wrapped up in this and…"

"It's not your fault, Kudou," Hattori began slowly, a slight twinge in his heart at the pain ringing Shinichi's words. "Ya couldn't have stopped me from coming along, you know. And besides," he said, his voice strengthening and pulling back a little bit from Shinichi's warmth, "After how long you had to deal with it, I must seem like a total wuss, huh?"

Shinichi shook his head. "No, Hattori, it's different. When I first turned, I had absolutely no idea what was going on, so I don't think reality hit me until I'd already grown somewhat used to it. In your case, you already know the facts, the situation, and in some ways, I think that would make it even rougher…"

The light-headedness washing off of him, Hattori smiled and leaned back. Shinichi relaxed his grip, though still held him in his lap. "At least I don't have to act all the time, Kudou. I really appreciate your letting me stay here, I…"

"Barou, you don't have to thank me…" Shinichi shook his head. "It's the least I can do and anyway…I can't say I was totally looking forward to living in this big house alone again." He smiled a little to himself. _Guess living as Conan changed me a little. I used to feel so confident and independent, but now I feel that there isn't anything wrong with leaning on others..._

Hattori grinned at him. "Well, I can definitely help keep things interesting for you. Alone, you'd just get to be even more of an antisocial holmes-freak, after all!"

"Shove off."

"So..." Hattori yawned and pushed off of his lap. "Are you going to make me dinner, Shinichi-niichan?" He asked a little too sweetly.

"Barou, make it yourself. I'm not your maid."

"Come on, Kudou! At least let me get what I can out of this form! And I'm just a tad too short to use the stove, so..." Hopping back onto the couch and leaning back on his hands, he grinned at Shinichi. "I'm waiting..."

"Brat," Shinichi muttered, but grinned and lifted him wedding style, bringing him with him to the kitchen. "You can at least keep me company, Hattori, if you insist on being a bump on the log."

"Fine, Kudou, whatever. Oh, but be aware that we in Osaka are serious about food, so make sure you make enough!"

"Hattori, you do realize your stomach shrunk along with your legs..."

"Well, I need to eat well to grow up, right?" He winked.

"Oh yeah, especially around the middle. You want to look like Genta, then?"

"Kudou! You yarou!"

"Wari, wari!" Laughing, Shinichi waved his hands back and forth as he began to gather ingredients before turning to his houseguest and making a very KID-like low bow. "Now, what would the young master like for dinner?"

* * *

"Oh, Conan-kun!" No answer. "Conan-kun?" Ran craned her neck to see the little boy's figure lying on his chest, apparently deeply involved with some book.

"What are you reading, Conan-kun? Conan-kun, can you answer me, young man?"

_Oh crap! That's supposed to be me! _Grinning sheepishly up, Kaito said sweetly, "Oh, I'm sorry, Ran-neechan! You were saying something?"

"Mou…what is this book that it would make you space out that much?" Leaning down to see the title the boy tried to bury away, "Arsene Lupin? I thought you didn't like…"

"Oh, well Shinichi-niichan and I were talking about it recently, and you know…maybe a thief isn't all that bad all the time! You know, Kid saved me before, after all." He grinned at her and Ran looked thoughtful.

"Well, that's true…but Conan-kun, even if Kaitou Kid isn't necessarily a real bad guy, I don't want you getting any ideas from him. He's a bad influence and he…" An unintentional blush crept onto Ran's face which made Kaito say, snidely, "What's wrong, Ran-neechan? Are you thinking about that day you thought Kid was Shinichi-niichan?"

"N-no! Conan-kun, I am not! But, wait, how did you know about that?"

"Oh! Well, heheheh…" Kaito laughed nervously, trying to think of the best way to cover his slip. "Well, you and Kid-niisan were standing really close to each other so I thought maybe he'd tricked you by dressing as Shinichi-niichan but also…uh, he hinted about it when he gave me that bandaid for my cheek!"

This made Ran really blush. "I-I knew it! What all did he say? I'm going to kill that thief." Ran's voice got quite dangerous as she finished, and Kaito gulped.

"Oh, not much, Ran-neechan. He just said something about how he thought he could play a really good Shinichi-niichan if he wanted to!"

"Oh, did he now? Well, too bad the pervert slipped up, eh?" Her eyes were getting dangerously wild-looking.

"Oh, but I'm sure he was just joking around, Ran-neechan! Don't worry about Kid!" He said, backing up a little on the couch.

"Hm. We'll see who jokes who. Next time that thief tries to disguise himself as someone I care about, I think I might use him as my new sparring partner."

Kaito's poker face was slipping as he listened to the horrific ruminations of the girl in front of him. How could such an innocent-looking girl be so terrifying? _Well, she isn't the only one, _he thought as images of Aoko and her mop, etc. flashed through his mind. He shuddered a little.

"Anyway, Conan-kun, dinner's ready, so hurry up and wash your hands!"

"Oh, yay! I'm coming, Ran-neechan!" Kaito jumped sprightly from the couch to follow her to the kitchen. "What are we having?"

"Oh, well I made salmon, brown rice and vegetables. Something healthy and refreshing after all that sun today!"

Kaito's face blanched and he didn't notice he was stumbling backward until he'd collapsed against the wall behind him.

"Conan-kun? What's wrong?"

"I-uh, I don't think I'm hungry, Ran-neechan," he said shakily, though his stomach's loud growl kind of exposed that lie.

Ran just looked at him oddly. "Conan-kun, you love this meal, don't you? I was thinking of you especially when I …"

"I, I…I think I'll just have the rice and vegetables," he said sadly.

"That's no good, Conan-kun. You need to have protein and that doesn't sound very filling." At the fear in the boy's eyes she quickly crouched down and felt his head in concern. "You don't feel like you have a fever, but maybe we could take you to the doctor. I wonder what kind of illness would make you want to avoid fish?"

"Ichthyophobia…" he muttered before saying more loudly. "Oh, I'm not sick, Neechan, I just, um…the other day I got sick off of, ummm…those uh, f-finny things… and I just don't think I can…"

Laughing, Ran said "Finny things? Are you sure you aren't pulling my leg?" She narrowed her eyes ever so slightly.

"N-no, Ran-neechan, I just really…can't…um." He gulped.

Frowning a little, she ran her hand through his hair. "It's funny, Conan-kun, but you've been, I don't know…different today."

"W-what? What do you mean, Ran-neechan?" Kaito said nervously. _Crap! I need to stop being so relaxed and make better use of my acting skills! _

"Well, you've just been more…kid-like, really. You're always so mature, but I think seeing your friend and everything just...It's probably really good for you, you know. It worries me how wise and grown-up you always act, so I'll make sure you guys get to see a lot of each other. How's that?" And she smiled genuinely.

_Phew, doesn't sound like she's suspicious, but geez… I'm not THAT kid-like…but then again…we're talking about me compared to Meitantei-kun so, yeah, maybe she has a point. _Smiling up at her he said, "That would be great, Ran-neechan!"

"But I hope you get over this fish problem, Conan-kun. You know it's my favorite thing to cook!"

Kaito gulped. "Heheh…sure, Ran-neechan…"

"Well for now," and she picked him up in her arms, walking over to the fridge, "You'll just have to deal with leftovers because we don't have anything else."

Placing him in his seat, Kogorou grunted as he took his own place at the table, and Kaito tried (unsuccessfully) to move the flower-vase centerpiece to obscure his view of the man's meal, flinching every time the man took a bite.

Deciding he needed to eat something or be extremely unhappy later, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and quickly shoveled in rice, vegetables and leftover yakitori before quickly thanking Ran and running off to bed.

"What's wrong with the brat?"

"I wonder…" Ran responded, looking bemusedly after the boy.

* * *

As soon as he heard the bell ring, Kaito sprang over to the door, reaching up to yank it open, and landed into the two visitors. "Hei-uh, Soji-kun!" He squeaked, squeezing the boy his own height before springing, nimbly, into Shinichi's arms. "Hi, Shinichi-niichan!"

Awkwardly petting the back of the enthusiastic boy hugging him around the neck, Shinichi cleared his throat. "Um, Conan-kun? Are you okay? This isn't like you…" He gave him a look which practically screamed at him to take the hint.

"Actually, Shinichi, Conan-kun started feeling bad last night at supper. It sounds like he ate too much fish one day and got some kind of food aversion, but I guess he's fine now..."

Comprehension dawning on the detective, he nodded slowly, prying Kaito's form from his body as he placed him at his feet to get a few good glares from Hattori.

"Ah yeah, that. I can't imagine he'll be eating fish anytime soon, Ran. This one's kind of stubborn about things like this. Oh, actually Ran, I was wondering if you'd let me borrow Conan-kun for a day or two. It's been a while since we've really been able to see eachother and there's this two-day deduction fest across town that's supposed to be great if you like detective novels or just mysteries in general. I thought Conan-kun and Soji-kun would really enjoy it, so I thought I'd take them with me."

"Oh, great. It's probably just like that Holmes fan-club thing we took Conan-kun to..." Ran said dryly. "I wonder if dad knows about this?"

"Uh, Ran, I think ojisan, uh, I mean, Mouri-san...would be too busy and anyway, he isn't a huge Holmes fan and that's going to be the main focus of the colloquium part so..." Shinichi blurted out quickly, laughing nervously.

"Hm..." Ran put her finger to her lips in a 'thinking' gesture before shrugging and saying "I guess you're right. Dad doesn't seem to like those detective gatherings in general, anyway."

She didn't notice the sighs of relief the other three let out on hearing this.

"So, when does it start, Shinichi?"

"Oh, it starts tomorrow morning, but I spoke to a family friend who lives nearby and he's happy to let us stay at his place tonight. I know it's late notice, but could I take Conan-kun along?"

"Well, he's your relative, Shinichi, so there isn't much I can do about it...what do you think, Conan-kun? Do you want to go?"

"Yeah, Ran-neechan! Can I go? It sounds really fun..."

"Really, nothing to be done about you detective freaks, huh?" She shook her head, but a slight smile crept onto her features. "That's fine. I actually promised Sonoko I'd hang out with her tomorrow, anyway, so I was half-thinking of asking you to look after Conan-kun, anyway, Shinichi."

"Make sure Sonoko doesn't rub off on you too much, Ran..." Shinichi joked.

"Shinichi! Mou...you know Sonoko's my best friend."

"Yeah, yeah. That doesn't stop her from being a total pain in the butt."

"Oh? And you're not?"

Snickers from below interupted them, and they pulled back, crossing their arms babyishly.

"Can you kids cut the racket?" Kogorou passed through the apartment, biting into a piece of toast. "You still fight like you did when you were smaller than these brats. You, detective gaki."

"H-hai?" Shinichi looked at him, eyes narrowing slightly at the terms of address, though not surprised at all after all this time.

"You're finally back. What the hell have you been up to? Ran's been wondering, you know..." he growled the last part.

"I know, Ojisan, and I..." He gritted his teeth.

"Ojisan?"

"Uh, I mean, Mouri-san," he awkwardly covered his slip. "It's a very complicated case, and"

"Try me. Or are you not aware that I have recently surpassed your own fame as a detective?" Kogorou said arrogantly.

"Oh, I know about your cases, Mouri-san, trust me." Shinichi smiled, again ignoring the snickers from his right.

"Hmph, well you could learn something from me, boy. About how to finish a case in one sitting!" He puffed his chest out until he looked like an odd sort of bird. Shinichi was now having a lot of trouble reigning in his laughter, but he managed it, and just nodded.

"So you're taking the little brat to some detective fest? Bad move. He'll run off and find some murder, mark my words. But hey, feel free to take him off my hands."

"Oh, sure. Well, we'll be seeing you." Turning to leave, letting out some breath as he realized the interrogation by the older detective was over (marked by the opening of a beer can), Shinichi turned to Ran and smiled.

"I'll walk you out," she said.

"Ran! We're running low on my snacks and beer!" Kogorou's voice shot again from behind, and she spun around in irritation. "Mou, Otousan! Didn't we just buy a whole bunch two days ago? How can you go through them that quickly!"

"Well, I can't help it...they help me think. Necessary mental preparation for Sleeping Kogorou! Hahaha!"

Ran just shook her head and led the others out.

"There really is nothing to be done about him, huh?"

"Heh, try not to worry so much, Ran. Sure, Ojisan can be a little irresponsible, but hey-that's just the way he is. Don't put so much pressure on yourself." Shinichi placed a hand on her shoulder, but then a crease formed between his eyes. "Are you sure you'll be okay if we leave you two alone tonight?"

"Baka, he's my dad! Of course it'll be a LITTLE lonely without Conan-kun, but it used to be just the two of us, so yeah, we'll be fine! Besides, without Conan-kun around, I can give that guy a real talking to..." Ran threateningly pounded one fist into her other hand, making the three around her gulp. After all, they were all walking on dangerous ground, not far themselves from becoming the target of Ran's fist...

"Okay, then. We'll see you the day after tomorrow, Ran, and I'll call you."

"Yeah, see you, Shinichi..." She blushed a little at the way his intense blue eyes were holding her face, and gasped slightly as he quickly leaned in to kiss her on the lips.

"Bye," he said, smiling.

"B-bye," she squeaked.

* * *

"So..." Kaito began, "Does this mean what I think it means?"

Shinichi sighed a little, figuring he'd let his fake counterpart figure things out for himself.

"It does, doesn't it? It's Kaito time!"

Shinichi grimaced a little at the excitable little boy.

"I hope that alibi holds up with Ran well enough..." Shinichi said to himself, eyes looking off somewhere... "WHAT?" He said, turning to glare at the grinning boy who was jabbing his leg.

"You're already messing up, Shin-chan! To be me, you have to act carefree, and you must ALWAYS remember your poker-face, got it? So no sad reminiscient expressions, or worried looks or anything! Imagine you're going up against another of your judgemental critic friends, and make it so they can NOT read you."

"Hai, hai." Shinichi smiled a little, shaking his head. "It's weird, hearing you actually give _constructive _advice, though it isn't entirely mind-blowing."

Kaito just ignored him before stopping suddenly. "Where are you going, Shin-chan?"

"Huh?"

"The 'friend's house' you were referring to would be mine, right?"

"Oh, what an impressive deduction," Hattori sneered.

"Well, Shin-chan obviously forgot!"

"Heh, guess I was zoning out," Shinichi's grin was passably poker-face worthy.

It didn't fool the two shrunken teenagers, though, who simultaneously elbowed him in the hips, Hattori saying "You thinkin about goin back to follow up that kiss with Neechan, Kudou?"

"B-barou! No!"

Kaito smirked and shook a finger, clucking his tongue. "You're slipping, Shin-chan. Blushes do NOT belong on poker faces!"

This just made Shinichi blush more.

"Okay, then! To Ekoda we go!" Kaito began to bounce excitedly in front of them, and Shinichi just laughed weakly. "He's almost as bad as the Shounen Tantei," he muttered to Hattori.

"I'm putting my money on WORSE than those real brats," Hattori returned.

"Hurry up, you guys!" Kaito turned around and latched onto one of each of his detectives' hands.

Sighing, Shinichi and Hattori allowed the mini-thief to drag them along but decidedly tried to shut out his inane chattering.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it. Sorry for the oodles of set-up chapters ;) Hopefully we'll get some fun stuff in next time...and HOPEFULLY I won't take forever updating this time! Again, so sorry for that!

Anyway, please let me know whether (or not) you liked this! Thanks so much!

tess4aria


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10: Serious Acting Skills**_

Dear everyone: I am VERY sorry for the delay. For those of you following my other stories, you can probably understand why, but it still isn't much of an excuse for abandoning this for over a month! :( I just, usually, work only under inspiration, and my newest inspiration has been my newest fic: _Recovering the Self_ *SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT* hehe, but anyway. Finally, we're back! I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know! Thanks soooo much! OH, and as always...THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS!

Quick Japanese (because this is necessary for understanding at least ONE passage in this chappy): Otouto: little brother

_**R&R~~! THANK YOU SO MUCH!**_

* * *

oOo

"Crap!"

"What's wrong, Hattori?"

"K-k-Kazuha!" He hissed mournfully as he eyed the buzzing phone in his hand.

"Oh, Hei-chan!" Kaito squeezed him around the middle. "Shall I take the call for you?"

"Keep away, Aho." Hattori glared viciously at him, and with a deep breath and an adjustment of his necktie, brought the phone to his ear.

"Uh, hey, Kazuha…"

"HEIJI? What are you DOING, AHO?" Kazuha's voice rang out with utmost clarity despite Hattori's holding the phone a good two feet from his ear.

"Oh, uh yeah. About that. Sorry, Kazuha, but you know I was here with Kudou-uh, no, uh Conan-kun, but…heh, I met up with Kudou and I told him I'd help him on a case so, uh, I won't be able to come back for a while..."

Kazuha's slow, heavy breathing was more terrifying than her yelling. It carried all of the thick, oppressive anticipation of a much worse blow-up.

"Oh, I see. A case, huh? Is Kudou-kun there with you, Heiji?" She asked icily, deliberately.

Thinking about how to answer without contradicting what Ran knew (as the girls would likely trade notes), he said:

"Oh, actually, Kudou's taking care of his relatives right now, so I went ahead. He'll be here to help me soon, though…"

When Kazuha hadn't answered after about thirty seconds, Hattori felt beads of sweat forming on his forehead and palms as he nervously checked to see if she'd hung up on him. At the questioning and somewhat concerned glances Kaito and Shinichi sent him, he coughed and hesitantly said, "Uh, Kazuha? Ya still there?"

Another pause. He gulped.

"Heiji…" She began slowly, threateningly.

"Um…uh, yeah?"

But when she spoke again, her voice held a hint of true anxiety despite its fake-cheerful tone. "So uh, this wouldn't be the same case that's kept Kudou-kun away for so long, would it?"

He froze, suddenly feeling as if a hard, icy hand had gripped his heart, then melting and dripping cold shivers down his spine. It was guilt. And it was only going to get worse…but at that moment, all he cared about was getting that tone, that truly scared tone that did not belong in Kazuha's voice, to go away…Gulping, he said, as nonchalantly as possible, "Nah, Kazuha, it's nothing like that. It's just that I have to travel and so I won't be home for a while, but I'll be able to talk and stuff so…look, I'm sorry, but I'm with Kudou, so I'm sure this'll be done before we know it!"

_God, I hope I'm right…_

When Kazuha spoke again, her voice was considerably lighter, and Hattori breathed a sigh of relief. "Whatever, Heiji, you still suck for not telling me beforehand! What IS it with you AHO detectives, anyway? Ran-chan's so right! You're as bad as Kudou-kun!"

Shinichi, who had heard this last comment, flinched slightly, and then jumped at the commiserating pat and patronizingly sympathetic look he was receiving from Kaito.

"Hey, I am not! Kudou's mcuh wor-uh…" Meeting said Kudou's dangerous glint, and remembering his current height problem, Hattori steered the conversation in a different direction, and his tone turned serious. "Look, Kazuha, I'm sorry…really. But, I've already… there isn't anything I can do to get out of it, but I promise that as soon as I'm back, I'll make it up to you."

"Mean it?"

"Yeah, I do…" His voice was soft, and his heart was suddenly pounding in his ears, his current company forgotten.

He could almost feel Kazuha smiling through the phone…that hesitant, truly happy smile she only made when she thought no one was looking. The thought made an odd tingly giddiness rise up and settle in his chest.

"Well, I'll take you up on that Heiji. Starting with….hmmm…well, prepare to be my shopping buddy for a month at least! Oh, and you can babysit my cousin for me sometime, that would be good, and…"

"Kazuhaaa" he groaned.

"Well, I'll be making a list, mark my words!" With a triumphant laugh, she then said. "Just be safe, Heiji, okay? And you'll call?"

"I promise…I'll definitely be in touch. And, uh…really, you don't need to worry. I'm really gonna try to get this case done as soon as I can, but it looks like it's a pretty big one, so…" His voice had grown uncharacteristically soft and serious again. It had felt good to banter with Kazuha-as if everything were normal and he weren't actually in a body ten years younger than hers…but when the fact that he wouldn't' be around...wouldn't be able to see her, at least as himself, for a while…when that hit him once again, he couldn't find it in himself to joke.

Kazuha had clearly noticed the difference. "Um, Heiji? You okay? You got all serious all of a sudden! I'm not _that_ mad, you know. I'm used to you being a stupid detective. As long as you're not doing some crazy dangerous crap like Kudou-kun's always getting into, I'm…I guess I'm okay with it. As long as you promise to do WHATEVER I tell you when you get home."

"Heh, got it, whatever you want. WITHIN reason, of course. Well, I'll call you later, okay?"

After hanging up, he stared at the bowtie clutched in his fist, wryly thinking about how this little bit of technology was the only thing that allowed him to be _himself_ right now...for Kazuha, at least... He sighed. _Aw well, no use feeling sorry for myself, I guess…_

He looked up when he felt a gentle warmth on his shoulder. Looking right, he was surprised to meet indigo eyes fixed on him levelly. Kaito was smiling gently, his usual humor almost gone, and for the first time, Hattori realized that he _really did_ see him as a friend, and not just because of their odd circumstances, but simply because he was a pretty damn good guy, all things considered. He loved to prank people and act immature, but that was just so he could get as much fun out of life as possible. When it came to situations that needed to be taken seriously, the magician-thief didn't miss a beat.

Hattori smiled back and then shrugged. "Well, good thing that's over."

Shinichi frowned at him. "Hattori, I…"

"Stop it, Kudou. We're all equally aware of the situation, and there just isn't anything…I mean, you guys are practically twins, by some crazy mess-up in the fabric of the universe, so you can easily pass as each other, but…there just isn't much I can say to her but tell her to wait…" He sighed.

Then, before they could respond, he grinned a little, looking back and forth between them. "I'm still not convinced you two weren't just separated at birth."

"Hattori, you barou! No way I'm related to this…this…" Shinichi just waved his arms in a frustrated gesture in an attempt to express just how objectionable he found the idea. Kaito, however, just grinned manically, something Shinichi noticed with much displeasure.

"What now?"

"Well, Shin-chan, if I didn't know better, I'd have to say I'd agree with Hei-chan, and I for one, wouldn't be ashamed to have you as my otouto-chan!" Shinichi blanched and mouthed 'otouto' in an amusingly fish-like impression which Kaito, lucky for him, missed. Continuing on, grinning manically, Kaito said "After all, you are sooooo cute! A little serious for my tastes, but that's just an unfortunate side effect of being a meitantei, huh? If you'd grown up around my dad, he would have stomped that out of you!" And he nodded with satisfaction as he imagined how much fun his tantei-kun would have been if he _had _been raised under the influence of one Kuroba Toichi.

Shinichi choked and sputtered, but once he'd regained his bearings, decided not to respond.

* * *

oOo

"Well…home sweet home!"

Shinichi raised an eyebrow at the surprisingly inconspicuous house. "Are you serious? No turrets? No rainbow-colored roofs or pink smoke from the chimney?"

"Only around Christmas time, Shin-chan, and that would be red and green smoke. I do things right, after all! Oh, and orange and black around Halloween…and pink and red around valentines day, and…"

"Okay, okay, I've got it. I won't deny your craziness any further. You've convinced me."

"Aw, but Shi-"

"BAKAITO! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"

In horror-movie-worthy slow-motion, they shifted their frozen limbs to face the irate girl. Kaito was the most nervous of all, but when he turned to see Aoko, he noticed she wasn't even looking at him. _Of course…_

Stomping towards Shinichi, she stopped inches from his face, glaring fiercely before poking him in the nose. "How about picking up your DAMN PHONE? And what have you done to your hair?" She blinked a little at the last, leaning back a little and narrowing her eyes as she inspected her 'best friend's' appearance. She frowned. _Have hiis eyes always been that blue? Weird…_

Kaito had snapped out of his own shocked stupor at seeing Aoko, first of all, ignore him, and second of all, treat Shinichi as she always did him…even though he knew perfectly well that this had been the plan all along, it was definitely different actually seeing it in action. _I guess I know, now, how Shin-chan felt all those times he had to watch me impersonate him and flirt with Ran-chan._ An unfamiliar twinge of guilt tugged at him for an instant at the thought, but he immediately brushed it aside, instead dragging himself back to the present. And the present was showing a shocked-still Shinichi and a suspicious-looking Aoko. Something had to be done.

Quickly, he raced over and grabbed onto one of Shinichi's hands with both of his, jumping up and down energetically. "Kaito-niiiiichan! Is this Aoko-neechan? The one you've told us so much about?"

Shinichi blinked, suddenly shooting back to the present himself. Looking down, he almost cracked up at how well Kaito could play an innocent little kid, but he knew this couldn't be easy for him… Aoko was…well, as far as he could tell, Aoko was kind of Kaito's Ran…the thought made him fill with sympathy and a fierce desire to do this right.

Slapping on a manic grin, as Kaito-like as he could, Shinichi crouched down and mussed Kaito's hair. "That's right! This is…_what did Kaito call say he calls her to rile her up? Hmmm, but that's so rude! Oh well, it'll clear up any doubts she has about me…_And clutching to everything his actress-mother had ever ironed into him, he mentally gritted his teeth and grinned up at the messy-haired girl. "Ahoko!" And he widened his grin, trying, desperately, to convince himself that he wasn't just walking into a frying pan wearing paper clothing…

A nerve twitched in Aoko's head, and out of nowhere, she brandished a certain something used in household affairs…

Kaito just blinked in shock as he watched Aoko take off after Shinichi with a mop. He wasn't doing badly, either, though his avoiding tactics were quite different from his own. Where he tended to favor cartwheels and handstands, Shinichi was doing some interesting footwork, and made a few impressive dodges with his upper-body, too…

"He's pretty used to running from neechan, I hear," Hattori commented from the side, grinning at the scene before them.

"Yeah, well goooood thing. Because I'll tell you. Aoko packs a punch with that mop!" Kaito shivered as several bad memories phased through his head.

"Heh, guess I should be glad Kazuha's a _little _more normal than the women you two have to deal with," Hattori grinned. "Not that she isn't crazy, but at least she keeps her hands off the household cleaning things…though, honestly, she'd probably do well to learn to use a mop to clean her room one these days, the damn messy aho…"

Kaito chuckled as he listened, cocking his head. "You two seem pretty close. I'm guessing it's a similar situation to Shin-chan and his…?"

Much to his chagrin, Hattori began to blush as much as would show on his darker skin. "A-Aho! No, we're…we're just friends, dammit! We're…uh, I mean…" He sputtered and Kaito laughed good-naturedly, putting a hand on Hattori's shoulder.

"She seems like a good girl, though." Looking up in thought for a second, Kaito pounded one fist in his other hand. "I remember her! Toyama-chan, right? She was around one of the times I impersonated Shin-chan!" He grinned at the memory. "She's definitely into you!" He said with great conviction and a manic smile, becoming more manic as Hattori looked more and more uncomfortable.

But then Kaito frowned a little. "But I know that just makes it rougher, Hei-….Heiji." Hattori's eyes snapped up at the use of his name less-honorific. There was some slight pain breaking through Kaito's usual poker-face, and Hattori's expression softened.

"Hey, it's okay. It's gotta be rough for you, too, right?" He motioned unnecessarily to where Aoko was still chasing Shinichi down the street, the detective obviously getting tired as the mop kept getting increasingly close to whopping him upside the head. "She's…well, I mean…can't say I've seen anything of this girl except her trying to murder Kudou, but…" he grinned. "But if she's that mad at ya for vanishing without telling her, I think that says something."

Kaito's face tightened a little and he looked up, somewhat wistfully, at Aoko before sighing. "Yeah…she's, well…she hates it when I don't call her, so she's probably been about ready to have her dad call out a search party. But even though she jokes around, she really does get worried. I mean, after her mom passed away, and my dad, we kind of…"

Hattori moved closer and put a hand on his shoulder. "That's why we're gonna work together, right? We're gonna kick those bastards to hell in a flaming motorcycle-"

"And dance on their remains?" Kaito finished, grinning up at him. "Yeah, thanks, Heiji. I…appreciate your support, I really…" He sighed, but their conversation was then brought to an abrupt close by an exhausted, and slightly bruised detective slamming down on the grass in front of them.

"Oh no, Kaito! I didn't mean to actually hit you!" Bending down in worry, Aoko began to shake Shinichi's shoulders, and he blinked. "Ra-" then catching Kaito's frantic shake of the head, his mop-mottled brain managed to right itself. "Aoko…hey…"

"Are you okay? I …normally you have more endurance than that, Kaito! I didn't think you'd get tired so easily!"

Shinichi blinked. _Easily? And I thought I'd really held my own…just what IS Kaito? How can he keep up with this…_and then he answered his own question. _Oh right. He's Kaitou Kid. And this girl's his childhood friend, so he's used to this kind of thing. Based on how much he likes his pranks, I'm willing to bet she gives him a work-out like this almost every day._

To Aoko, he grinned and said, "Heh, I've just had a slightly tiring few days is all, but nothing to worry about. But hey, sorry I worried you, Aoko, I've just been busy."

She blinked and a little flustered, pink tinge dusted her cheeks. "I…I wasn't worried…" She began to nervously play with her skirt as she looked away from Shinichi. Then her eyes settled on the _real _Kaito for the first time.

Kaito's heart shot into his skull when those familiar bright eyes met his. _She looks shocked. Oh no, I bet she knows it's me! Damn it…Aoko, I'm sorry, I'm…_ And then whatever else he had intended to think was flushed away as his vision was obscured in soft, brown hair, and warm arms wrapped around him, pulling him in. It took him a second to register. _Aoko's…hugging me?_

Frozen in shock, he slowly began to relax in her grip as her warmth melted through him and he closed his eyes, just savoring the feeling of _her. _He was home, even if just for a second. Keeping his eyes shut tightly, he tried to forget. Forget that he wasn't big enough to hug her back, to comfort her, to tell her the truth. Reaching out, he wrapped his arms as far as he could around her back, frustrated that his short arms couldn't even meet around her tiny waist. Slowly, she pulled back, and she looked a little confused.

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure…" She blushed a little before grinning. "You're just so cute, I had to hug you! But…I didn't mean to for so long. I didn't scare you, did I?"

Poker face slamming into place as quickly and with as much frantic force as possible, Kaito smiled sweetly and shook his head. "No, neechan, not at all!"

She smiled at him again, starting to reach forward as if to touch his cheek, but seemed to think better of it. She shook her head, but her eyes still looked troubled. She turned back to Shinichi, who was standing right behind her, wearing his own impressive poker-face, having watched the aforementioned proceedings with an uncomfortable, coiling pain. A sympathy of déjà vu and guilt and anger at those damn bastards who were responsible was welling in him.

"Who's this boy, Kaito?"

Shinichi grinned and crouched down next to Kaito, running a hand through his hair-a motion uncharacteristic of Shinichi which he hoped Kaito understood for what it was-just to say 'hey, I understand. I'm here for you.' To the girl, he said: "Aoko, I'd like you to meet a distant relative of mine. Edogawa Conan."

She blinked. "Hey, isn't he…?" She blinked as she looked at Kaito. "Aren't you the boy people have been calling Kaitou Kid's rival?"

Kaito blinked, met Shinichi's eyes, blinked again, and then grinned sheepishly at Aoko. "Um, well Aoko-neechan, I'm not sure if I'd go _that _far, but I do like playing with Kid-niisan at his heists. They're really fun!"

She frowned and hmphed. "Maybe you think they're fun, but he's still a stupid thief! So don't let him brainwash you, you hear me?"

"Um, yes, neechan…" He gulped. An Aoko slightly smaller than you is scary enough. Aoko over twice your size? Terrifying.

Then she blinked as she noticed the other member of the party. "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there! What's your name?" She said sweetly, crouching down in front of Hattori and resting her hands on his shoulders.

"I'm um…Soji. Akagawa Soji, oneesan…"

She smiled. "Soji-kun, huh? So, are you another surprise relative of Kaito's?"

Hattori nodded.

"Oh! You are? I was kind of joking…Bakaito! You didn't tell me you had so many kids in your family!"

After exchanging a glance with Kaito and receiving some quickly whispered pointers, Shinichi swaggered over to Aoko before crouching between them and mussing Hattori's hair playfully. "Again, they are _distant _relatives. We've only met a few times before now, but…Soji-kun's family is…" And with remarkably believable concern for 'Soji-kun' being reminded of bad things, Shinichi leaned over to whisper to Aoko, saying "They're dealing with some pretty serious problems, so I'm having to help them out right now. He'll be staying with me, but that's why I was gone this weekend…and I'm going to be going back with him to help again soon, too. Sorry to leave you alone, Aoko, but this just isn't something I can say no to, you know?"

Aoko's eyes filled with sympathy for the little boy as she imagined what kinds of 'serious problems' 'Kaito' might be talking about. "Of course," she said softly, and smiled. "Well, you guys are here right now, so why don't we do something fun to celebrate?"

"Something fun?"

"Yeah! Like…hmmm…ooh! There's a new place I want to try for dinner and then, Kaito, let's go to that ice cream parlor we always go to! You know, the one where they have your favorite double chocolate chip ice cream in choco-cones!" Shinichi had to hide the wince and look of disgust which were frantically trying to make their way onto his face. _That sounds like a frickin…why the hell isn't Kaito 300 pounds? Oh, wait. He's Kaitou Kid. And again, Aoko and her mop…_ Shinichi chuckled a little to himself, something, unfortunately, which Aoko took as a 'yes' to both suggestions.

"Okay, well I have to get some stuff from home, so I'll stop by in a few hours and we'll head out, okay?"

"Oh, sure, but are you sure you don't want us to come meet you somewhere half-way?"

She blinked at him like he'd grown an extra head. Shinichi paled, realizing that he must have said something slightly…off.

"Kaito…what are you talking about? You want to meet me in front of the gate between our houses?"

Shinichi's eyes widened as realization hit him. Peering at the next-door mailbox, he saw, written in bold emblazoned characters: "NAKAMORI."

_Oh. Next-door neighbors. I see…that….might make things more interesting. WAIT a sec. That means…Kaitou Kid plans all of his heists…his…everything…right next door to Nakamori-keibu's house? _

The thought was so hilarious that Shinichi burst out in laughter, earning him a few odd stares. Luckily, Aoko interpreted this as his admitting the stupid joke he'd been playing with his previous comment, and she let him go with a light slap on the head. "Okay, Bakaito. You get ready in something MILDLY presentable." Crouching and grinning and Kaito and Hattori, she whispered covertly, "You guys keep your niichan in line, okay? Make sure he doesn't blow up the house before we go to dinner!"

"Hai, Aoko-neechan!" They chirped in unison, and she smiled more widely before waving and running around the fence to her house.

The second the three performers made it through the door of Kaito's house, they all collapsed in a mottled heap, variously draped on the rug, couch, and each other, groaning and/ or rubbing residual bruises…

* * *

There's chapter 10! Hope you guys liked it! :D I figure Shin-chan would have gotten SOME acting talent from his kaasan, but will it be enough? That's the question, isn't it? Good news: Summer break's almost here, so that means plenty of time to write! So, there shouldn't be as much of a hold-up with this story!

Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed it! Please remember to review~!

Thanks so much!

tess4aria


	11. Chapter 11

_**Chapter 11: Breathing Room**_

This has become my customary first greeting, but SORRY for the delay! And sorry that this chapter is slightly shorter, but this way I'm at least GETTING a chapter out! Short chapters are better than no chapters at all, right? I hope so...

As always, thank you to my lovely reviewers. You are wonderful. Please let me know what you think about this one, too! Thanks so much!

I do not own Meitantei Conan~

_**Please R&R~!**_

* * *

oOo

"She's…something else," Shinichi grumbled, rubbing his head.

Nimbly springing up beside him on the couch, Kaito grinned at him. "What did you expect?"

"I guess you're right, and honestly…this does explain a few things."

Kaito smirked at him knowingly, and in the look they shared, he made a silent pledge to once again show off how much he'd learned in all his time avoiding Aoko's rampages on the Moonlight Stage.

"Well, all I can say is, I don't envy ya, Kudou," Hattori said, grinning, as he punted himself up onto one of the Kuroba family couches.

Shinichi frowned slightly as he sat down beside him. "Well, she seems like a good girl, really. If she'd met me as Kudou Shinichi, I'm sure she'd be totally pleasant," he ended this with a pointed glance at Kaito, suggesting more than a little that he blamed him for making a sweet girl into a mop-wielding harbinger…

Kaito smiled sardonically, taking the detective's intimations in stride. "Well, it would have been better if she hadn't popped up behind us like that. I was hoping for a _little _bit of time to prep you before running into her. Ahoko always has the greatest timing."

"Well, it wasn't so bad."

Kaito looked at him strangely and Shinichi fidgeted a little under the glance. "W-what is it?"

"You did well."

Shinichi blinked, waiting for him to go on...waiting for the punch line he knew was coming. After all, whether as Kaito or Kid, this magician-thief didn't just hand out straight compliments for free. At least, not very often...

"Worthy of being my otouto! Alright, Shin-chan, you may refer to me as ONIISAMA, got it? …hm, that may be slightly problematic when we meet on heists, but, meh, you can just pretend they misheard you saying 'KID-sama,' ne? What do you think?"

"Owww…" Kaito then sat up, rubbing his head, from where he'd landed in the crutch of the couch when Shinichi had shown him just _what_ he thought about that suggestion.

"Barou. It's so painfully obvious who the otouto would be in this situation, it isn't worth mentioning. And that's not counting your stature." He smirked at Kaito and ruffled his hair none-too-gently.

They were then interrupted by a mass flapping of wings as the room was overtaken by a small flock of pure-white doves, most aiming to perch on their downsized master. A few seconds later, Kaito's laughing, muffled voice could be heard from beneath the mass of white animals: "Ack! You guysss, I can't hold you all right now! You'll have to wait your turns! Here, try Shin-chan! He'll make a good perch! Go on!"

The next few minutes had the two detectives struggling to locate their own limbs as Kaito made (per usual) a flamboyant, enthusiastic show of introducing them to his trusty doves…one at a time…

By the time Hattori had, choking on feathers, had to stumble from the room for a taste of air without flocks of animals intercepting his air flow, the two were moderately well-versed in, not just the names, but the favorite foods and tricks of many of the members of Kaito's little feathery battalion.

"…but don't try giving Kaiki any apricots, or he'll go for your thumb instead. He prefers prunes! Oh, and Sekka is particularly fond of golden raisins…yes, I know, she's a quirky one…"

"Kaito," Shinichi sighed exasperatedly, "could you PLEASE take the hint and shut it for one second?"

Kaito turned innocent eyes on the spectacle before him. He noted with a grin that Shinichi's glare and rude gestures would have been a good deal more intimidating had one of his prize female doves, Yuzu, not chosen his hair to nest in… and poor Hattori (Kaito snickered, pausing to take a quick, candid shot with a camera he materialized under his favorite critics' radars) seemed to have resigned himself to his fate, lying on his back on the couch as almost a dozen doves were perched variously on or around him, nibbling affectionately on his cheeks, hair, earlobes, fingers…apparently, the shrunken kansai detective had noticed that any loud noises or movements he made in an attempt to reject the doves only served to make them more 'affectionate' and determined in their attentions…

Kaito couldn't stand it any longer, and collapsed on the floor, rolling around in shrieking, high-pitch laughter. Tears coming to his eyes, he didn't notice as his dove-family (as he collectively referred to them), attracted by the familiar, bird-like sounds he made, had left his _captive audience, _freeing them up to take retribution…

With an oomph!, Kaito found himself sprawled on the ground in a head-lock at the hands of an evilly-smirking shrunken detective. "Gotcha! Stupid thief!"

Shinichi rolled his eyes but grinned as the two continued to roll on the ground together, pinning one another down in alternating rhythms. With a yawn, he stretched out his feet from where he was lounging on the couch with the doves (who had now, thankfully, decided to sit obediently beside him to enjoy the show) to set them none-too-gently on Kaito's back as he was mid-cheer at having once again pinned Hattori down below him.

Kaito looked back to glare at him, but then all three met eyes and burst out in laughter, the two on the ground sprawling out, stretching their limbs luxuriously.

It was nice, Shinichi thought, to laugh this way. To feel so free. Even though the reality of their situation was pretty messed-up, all things considered, the fact that they could joke around, and be so utterly, fantastically stupid…and enjoy themselves this way, really struck him. Stifling a yawn, he stood up and grinned down at his friends before reaching down and plucking a squawking Kaito from the ground, bringing him up to eye level.

"So? Are we just going to lie around all day?"

"Sounds fine to me," Hattori muttered into the carpet.

Kaito grinned mischievously at Shinichi and gently brushed his hand down the detective's cheek. "Are you suggesting you'd like to lie around here with us, Meitantei?"

Sputtering incomprehensibly and blushing slightly at the suggestiveness of the magician's words, Shinichi tossed Kaito onto the couch and plopped down himself beside him, arms crossed and glaring.

"Oh, fine! Mr. grouchy pants…you seriously need to relax!" Kaito looked at him mock-seriously. "And when I say that, I'm just looking out for you, Meitantei~" and he winked. "But…I suppose I should show you around a little before we need get going again, ne?"

"Oh," Shinichi blinked, having once again found himself slipping into the carefree atmosphere of the last few moments. "Yeah, let's do that…"

Kaito then went on to introduce the two detectives to each successive room, making the kind of ruckus of exploding pops, bangs, glitter and confetti upon each entrance the others expected of him. He seemed to grow increasingly excited as they continued along, too, at times impatiently grabbing on to Shinichi and Heiji's hands and dragging them after him.

Shinichi and Heiji exchanged a slightly exasperated, but more than that they shared their amusement as Kaito sprung happily into his bedroom, so messy and covered in various gadgets and gizmos (whether for pranking or for either of his 'lines of work' was hard to say) that the floor was not easily identifiable. With a grin, however, Kaito snapped his fingers and a pink cloud of smoke rose up around them, flooding the room.

When things cleared, the room was…not spotless…but markedly better.

Hattori blinked. "Uh…could ya teach me how to do that?"

Kaito beamed at him, and gave him a little hug around the middle. "Oh, Hei-chan! I think that's the first time you've really expressed interest in learning magic!"

Shinichi rolled his eyes. "Hattori's just a lazy bum, and you know that Kaito. Anything to avoid picking up after himself." He grinned at Hattori's dangerous glare, not backing down in the slightest. "Once he learns how much work it is to learn the trick, though, he'll probably just run back to the vacuum cleaner, so don't get your hopes up, Kaito."

"Kudou! You traitor, you!"

"Traitor? You've always been on my side, Hei-chan!" Kaito informed him with all (un)due seriousness.

"Ah, I see," Hattori replied shortly, before laughing himself.

"H-hold on. Kaito. My clothes…when?…" Eyes widening in harrassed understanding, Shinichi blushed a little again, crouching to glare Kaito straight in the eye. "Funny. You think you're so damn clever, don't you?…Don't answer that," he added quickly, making Kaito shut his mouth in a pout.

The magician then shrugged. "If you're going around Ekoda, you might as well look the part, and you should know, Meitantei. We may share certain similarities…but wardrobe is not one of them."

"Point taken," Shinichi answered as he examined himself in the mirror, pulling at the casually loose-fitting grey jacket over black t-shirt (with a skull and cross bones on front). He then reached up to touch his hair. The magician seemed to have spared some fragment of the absurdly short time it had apparently taken him to change Shinichi's outfit and clean up his own room to also mess the detective's hair up to a passably-Kaito state.

Blinking a little, Kaito considered him and nodded. "You'll do," he decided.

Shinichi was still looking at himself in the mirror, and then raised an eyebrow as he turned back to Kaito. "Is this really how you look?" He asked softly.

Kaito tilted his head in slight confusion.

Hattori seemed to have understood however, and grabbed a frame to hold it up to Shinichi, and the two compared the two images: the photograph and Shinichi's image in the mirror.

"We've never seen ya as yourself as an adult, Kuroba," Hattori explained, though the thief had already seemed to have figured this out, and just gave him a little nod to indicate that he'd been listening.

"Weird, Kaito," Shinichi said, staring at the picture in his hand of the magician grinning with his arm around (while giving bunny-ears to) an embarrassed-looking Aoko. "We really could be…"

"Twins?" Hattori supplied. "Just as I've been saying."

Shinichi grimaced a little but then waved lightly, saying, "Not like I don't already know this, but it's just different seeing a picture of you and me dressed up as you at the same time. It kind of drives the whole thing home."

"I know what you mean, Shin-chan," Kaito said soberly…but then his face broke into a wide grin…something which made the other inhabitants of the room understandably nervous.

With an angelic smile, the magician climbed over his twin-bed to grab a paper and pen and started to work scribbling determinedly, likely plotting something…

* * *

oOo

Shinichi stared at the list his diminutive 'counterpart' had handed him with a cheeky grin. The detective's face growing increasingly tight and horrified the further he read, he finally thrust it aside, giving Kaito a look which clearly suggested that he dearly wished the shrunken magician-thief was pulling his leg. Unfortunately, however, he knew better than to think his rival and look-alike was above such things…

"What's wrong, Shin-chan?" Kaito asked, grinning so widely that Hattori instinctively moved a hand to his own face to make sure it wasn't under threat of stretching apart in empathy.

Shinichi fixed him with a cold, hard deadpan. "You," he growled, "expect me to-" grabbing the paper back up off of the bed where he'd thrown it a second before, he poked at it angrily to indicate the objectionable list. "Dying people's hair? Smoke bombs and shit? Look. Those don't sit well with me, but I'm ready to grit my teeth about them because I understand that you have to keep up your usual (but NOT NORMAL) behavior to a certain point or else it'll look suspicious…but…oh, why is Hakuba-san's name starred?" Noticing this last, momentarily stealing his attention away, he tilted an eyebrow and fixed the now happily-whistling little magician with a knowing and fierce glare which suggested he had a pretty good idea already.

"Aw, that silly, stuck-up ninny deserves it, Shin-chan, trust me."

"Kudou, sorry to say, but I've gotta agree with the thief, here. That tight-assed bastard could do with some serious prankin." Meeting Kaito's grin, Hattori gave him a look which clearly expressed his interest in the idea.

"Oh, Hei-chan! Just as I thought, you have wonderful taste in people~" Hattori then had to struggle to wrench Kaito's clingy arms from around his neck.

"Erhm-HEM. I don't believe I was finished talking…" Shinichi glared at them.

"Oh, we didn't mean to leave you out, Shin-chan!" Kaito beamed at him, leaping to sit beside him on the bed, lounging with his short legs draping on the detective's lap.

Promptly throwing Kaito's legs off, Shinichi fixed him with an even fiercer glare, indicating a note at the bottom of the page. "You really think I'm going to…" He blushed a little but pushed on. "I am NOT flipping Aoko-san's skirt. What the hell? Why would you be okay with that anyway? Aren't you in love with her for god's sakes?"

At this, Kaito paled, his poker-face smug grin wiped clear from his eyes, lips and voice.

"Wha-wha-l-love?" He squeaked. Shinichi and Hattori met surprised glances as they noticed a slight, telling pink tinge stain the magician's cheeks before the color was just as suddenly drained away.

Kaito grinned at Shinichi, though a sharp glint of annoyance in his eyes made Shinichi start slightly. It was gone almost as soon as it had appeared, though. Smiling, Kaito waved casually and said, "Aoko's just a friend, and a nosy one at that…if you couldn't tell…and she's bound to notice any sudden changes in my behavior towards her. Unfortunately for all parties involved, skirt-flipping is one such tradition which I am SURE she will miss, whether she would ever admit to it or not…"

As Shinichi watched Kaito, he felt a little twinge. So that was it. It wasn't that he didn't care. He wasn't thrilled by the prospect at all, clear not only from his tone, sudden agitation, momentary expression and wording, but also from how he had added it last on his list, as if he'd been debating adding it until the last second…but he was right, really. Something the prank-loving magician did as often as he seemed to do this whole skirt-flipping bull-crap would definitely be missed (well, maybe not MISSED missed, but its absence would be noticed), and so…Shinchi sighed.

"Fine, Kaito. But only once per trip. And I'm only going to pretend to look. My eyes are staying closed."

"How will you know what color they are, then?"

"Uh…" Shinichi planted his head in his palm. "Fine. I'll glance. Or you can tell me. Whatever. I don't care…"

He frowned, noticing the forced positivity on Kaito's face, and crouched down to look at him more closely. "Hey, Kaito. I'm-sorry about this, you know. If only-"

Kaito shook his head, and stepped forward a little, placing a hand on the currently larger young man's shoulder. "Not your fault, Shinichi. Just remember, what we do, we do to stay alive…and to keep our loved ones safe," he said quietly. "To get back at those bastard crows, and to finally take them down. We can do it, and we will…so please. Don't feel sorry for me. I can't…" He smiled, but his smile was weak and more of a ghost of an expression, a sad, faint thing. "I don't do so well opening up," he said, almost imperceptibly, as if talking to himself… "But this hasn't been all hell yet, right? Maybe we'll even have fun tonight!"

Shinichi smiled at the magician's never-ceasing attempts to keep things upbeat, to lead them all away from dark thoughts. If Kaito really felt that way, then it was all he could do not to let him down, right?

Taking Shinichi's smile as marking the subject closed, Kaito then grinned conspiratorially between the other two. "Back to business. We have an hour left. Ready to show me what you can do, my magician-in-training?"

Kaito, having taken the bed to himself at some point, and Shinichi having moved to the ground, the shrunken magician did look the part of a kind of absurd teacher as he instructed and helped Shinichi to rehearse what he'd been practicing in his high-pitched voice from above.

* * *

oOo

It was about time for the boys to meet up with Aoko again, and Shinichi felt a good deal better at having at least succeeded in learning to pull off several simple coin tricks-and materializing a paper rose-to Kaito's satisfaction. He also, after listening to the magician's super-speed chatter, felt he knew much more about the part he was playing, and had been listening attentively as Kaito gave him tips on mannerisms, important memories his child-hood friend liked to bring up, Aoko's favorite foods and music…all in all, Shinichi's head was buzzing pleasantly with information.

But there was one thing, he was quite aware of, that was missing from his impromptu tour into Kaito's world. Something yet to be seen. And he was insanely curious, despite himself. "Where do you keep all of your Kid stuff, Kaito?" Shinichi asked, unable to hold it in any longer.

"Well, Meitantei, you DO realize a certain keibu's daughter will be here any minute, now, and I would…prefer… that this not get out to her…" Kaito's face once again became uncharacteristically serious, and Shinichi frowned suddenly, nodding.

"I understand, Kaito. Sorry about that…"

The magician grinned at him, shaking his head. "No apologies needed, Shinichi. I'm just a little…heh…" He shook his head somewhat roughly and his more Kid-like grin slapped back on. "How about we deal with that after we survive this evening, ne?"

"Yeah, Kudou," Hattori put in. "After all, ya hafta learn to play this idiot Kaito, first. Better to leave his criminal alter ego for later, yanno?"

"I can deal with that…" Remembering the dreaded _list _(and what he'd already promised he'd go through with), Shinichi grimaced. "On second thought…ugh. Yeah, only one crazy personality at a time. If I get through tonight, then I'll deal with the thief stuff."

Kaito winked. "You'll be great, Shin-chan~"

Shinichi sighed, but grinned when Hattori's commiserating glance turned to an expression which clearly said 'how the hell did we get strapped to such a loon?'

Then, the doorbell rang, and Kaito quickly climbed Shinichi like a monkey to put some finishing touches to his "not messy enough for me!" hair before the three sobered up slightly, slapped on game faces, and went to answer it.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it! I know it was short, but I hope it was enjoyable anyway! Thanks so much!

I"ll be seeing you again soon!

tess4aria


	12. Chapter 12

_**Chapter 12: What We Need from Each Other**_

Thank you so much for the reviews!

Much longer chapter this time :D And much faster update, ne? Hope you enjoy it!

I do not own Meitantei Conan~

_**Please R&R~!**_

* * *

oOo

As soon as Shinichi opened the door, he was met by a scowling Aoko.

"Uh…Aoko? What's up with you?" He asked, somewhat warily, instinctively backing up a step.

The girl closed her eyes and shook her head, her face morphing into a dangerously shark-like grin. "What's wrong, you ask…not like I'm _surprised _after having to deal with you all this time…but just WHY the hell did you find it…" A deep blush began to creep up her neck, staining her face, but anger seemed to overcome embarrassment, and she roughly shoved Shinichi back against the doorjamb, prodding him semi-painfully in the chest as she continued. "All of my damn underwear…infected with your stupid pink dye! You unbelievable perv!"

"That was like 3 days ago! Have you not been changing, Aoko?" Asked a surprised, amused and…high-pitched voice.

"W-wha? That's not-!" She spluttered. "I've been dressing out of my suitcase for the past few days since I got back from a trip!" She explained, waving her arms wildly. It was then that she noticed just _who _had made that last comment. The others, too, seemed to have noticed, and Kaito quickly slammed his hands over his mouth in horror.

Aoko stared at the incredibly uncomfortable-looking little boy, eyes narrowing. "What did you say? Why would you…" Suspicions were quickly painting themselves onto her face, and Kaito's shocked and guilty blinks weren't doing too much to dissuade them.

With a sudden flash of inspiration, Shinichi crouched down behind Kaito and ruffled his hair affectionately, grinning madly up at Aoko. "What do you think, Ahoko? This one's truly worthy of being my relative, don't you think?"

Aoko paled slightly but then, as color returned to her face, the boys could see her suspicions washing away. "Kaito, you! How dare you teach kids to act that way!" Glaring fiercely at him, she grabbed his shirt collar in both fists, but then melted to the smaller of the look-alikes when she noticed an almost-tearful expression on the now-prepared-to-act Kaito's face.

"I'm sorry, neechan," he whispered. "I thought it would be a funny joke, but I didn't mean to upset you! I think Kaito-niichan thought it would be funny, too!"

Smiling at him, but still glaring at Shinichi, Aoko stooped and wrenched Kaito from his 'cousin's' grip, lifting him up in her arms and brushing her hand through his hair. "I'm not mad at you, sweetie! I just think your niichan should try to be a _better influence_, is all!" At the last, she had shot another dangerous glare at Shinichi, who cowered back a little before leaping to his feet and grinning at her, waving inanely.

She rolled her eyes, but returned her gaze to Kaito's wide…indigo. She blinked. His eyes were so familiar. They looked so much like…she glanced again at Shinichi, but the acting-magician was crouched by Hattori, whispering conspiratorially into his ear, his back to her. She sighed and smiled back at Kaito, still in her arms. There was something about this little boy…she wasn't even that fond of kids, normally, but she just felt drawn to him somehow.

"Well, Conan-kun," she said, grinning at him. "Don't worry, I won't seriously hurt your niichan, though I do think he needs to learn a lesson. But listen…why don't you stick with me and try not to listen to his bad advice so much? What do you think?"

Kaito just nodded obediently, eyes wide… _Gee, Aoko never uses such a gentle tone with me normally…it's kind of…_ He tried to wrench his attention from his suddenly pounding heart and the traitorous blush he could feel creeping up. _Damn it! I NEVER blush normally…must be the body again…_ He groaned aloud.

Aoko looked at him questioningly, and then smiled, a look of slight surprise clear in her eyes upon noticing his coloring. "Oh, Conan-kun, you DO realize neechan's a little old for you, right?" She winked at him, and he only blushed more deeply. Laughing lightly, her mood having turned a full-180, she squeezed him a little more tightly before setting him down beside her, grabbing his hand in hers.

Kaito blinked up at her, and then felt unable to wrench his eyes from their clutched hands…_Maybe there are some benefits of this form…_Even as this was crossing his mind, though, he noticed Aoko's sweet smile at him was…though genuinely affectionate, just inherently _different _from the way she normally looked at him.

_Aw, but there's the familiar look!_ But, of course, she was no longer looking at him, but at Shinichi, who had decided to lift Hattori onto one of his shoulders as he pretended to show him one of the coin tricks he'd been practicing minutes before.

"Bakaiiiiito," Aoko drawled, clutching Kaito's hand more firmly in hers as she dragged him over to the other two. "We're all quite aware that you like to pretend to be a magician, okay? Why don't you leave poor Soji-kun alone, now, huh?" Grinning up at Hattori on Shinichi's shoulders, Aoko cocked her head sweetly. "Are you hungry, Soji-kun? What would you like?"

Hattori blinked at her, and then blinked again, somewhat sinisterly as he noticed the embarrassed Kaito's tiny hand was still clutched in his 'neechan's.' Smiling sweetly back at Aoko, Hattori chirped, "I like _Okonomiyaki_, neechan!"

"Oh, really? Well, good. The place I wanted to go has yummy _okonomiyaki_, so how about we just get going there?" With another winning smile at Hattori, Aoko turned and began to walk off, dragging Kaito alongside her, not even sparing a glance for Shinichi.

Shinichi shrugged, sharing a glance with Hattori before falling into an easy lope behind her. Somehow, this felt way too reminiscent of all the walks to school as he'd trailed behind Ran and Sonoko. Aoko's resemblance to Ran really was shocking, now that he had time to really think about it. Grinning at the little magician's hand clutched in an unsuspecting Aoko's, Shinichi was tempted, suddenly, to really pull a Kaito and make some kind of a wolf-whistle, but then memories of all those times he had held Ran's hand as Conan…and of how little it meant _that way_ hit him, and he gritted his teeth.

This transformation really was cruel. To be so close, physically, and yet…separated by such a deep gulf. A gulf of ten years dug suddenly and imposed on you without warning. Kaito had his own true, real feelings for Aoko, regardless of what he felt comfortable admitting to them, but as things were, Aoko only saw him as a cute little-brother character. Seeing the two of them walking that way together brought such a painful sense of déjà vu to the Detective of the East that he almost tripped over his own feet in distraction.

Shinichi then noticed that Aoko was looking back at him strangely, and Kaito had a somewhat pleading look in his eyes. Shinichi blinked, realizing that he had been falling into his comfortable Shinichi routine of falling behind the others while walking…but that this wasn't necessarily the way Kaito acted around his friends…

With a grin, Shinichi jogged to catch up, racing in front of Aoko and turning to continue running backwards as he grinned sheepishly at her. "Sorry, Aoko! Was a little distracted there!"

She rolled her eyes, but seemed to think the flick on his nose she then proceeded to give him was enough to satisfy her. Placing her one free hand on her hip, she cocked her head at Shinichi. "Oh yeah? Distracted, were you? You weren't thinking about some girl, were you?" She asked dangerously.

Shinichi blinked and then remembered something Kaito had told her… "Actually, Aoko, I was just thinking about a trick KID used on his last heist. It was so awesome, but I think I can perfect it if I…"

The mop handle he then had to duck to avoid assured him he had again performed to passably Kaito standards, and he shared a little secret grin with both adult-kids.

As they continued their walk, Hattori had found himself, at some point, much to his embarrassment, with his hand captured in Aoko's other as she chattered happily about end-of-summer plans, occasionally scolding Shinichi about the pranks 'he' had imposed on their classmates the previous year.

"After all, we're going to be seniors, Kaito! Even if _you _have a freaky memory, that doesn't mean the others don't need to focus to get into good schools!"

Shinichi looked mock-offended. "Aoko! You know I never do anything other than contribute to the enjoyment and learning of our fellow scholars," he grinned.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure…at least our classmates will be prepared whenever they run into crazy prank-loving magicians in the future…"

"Well, that's a definite possibility! See, I'm totally looking out for them."

She sighed and shook her head, albeit with amusement in her eyes. "There really is nothing to be done about you, huh, you silly magician…"

Shinichi grinned at her and cheerfully said "Nope!"

As they approached the restaurant, Aoko noticed the boy to her left had moved in closer and was pressing against her side, clutching her hand more tightly.

"What's wrong, Conan-kun?" She asked. Following his wide-eyed gaze before he pressed his face into her side, she narrowed her eyes. "Conan-kun? Did bakaito's crazy phobia get to you, too?"

Shooting an accusatory glare at Shinichi as if he must have done this on purpose, she blinked as she noticed he looked completely comfortable as they passed the aquarium…

Her eyes narrowed and she was about to say something when Shinichi turned to her, looking bemusedly at her narrowed eyes. Not quite sure what, exactly, her problem was, he just decided to pull one of the Kaito standards he was more comfortable with, and twisted his hand, presenting her with a pink rose. "There, Ahoko. My apologies for improving your underwear," he said casually.

Noticing the shade of pink did resemble, a little too closely for her liking, said underwear's coloring…she found her earlier suspicions washing away as she proceeded to throw angry accusations at her 'childhood friend,' chasing him until they'd reached the restaurant.

As they passed through the door, Shinichi shot an apologetic look at Kaito, but the boy shook his head, and the look he sent Shinichi really hit him to his core. There was definitely some resentment and some jealousy in that momentary flash of expression. But there was also gratitude. Because it really was safer to keep Aoko's awareness to a minimum until they had a better hold on things…in the shadow of a genuine smile-not the kind of smile that belonged on his childlike face, but a smile he had seen a few times, a smile he knew was clearly _him_, clearly _Kaito_, unmasked, Shinichi could feel an unspoken request for him to keep going, to keep trying…of how much it meant that he do so…

Returning his own genuine smile to Kaito, Shinichi took a deep breath and followed the other three in, preparing himself for the next segment of the day.

* * *

oOo

Shinichi decided he liked it, this restaurant. As he took a seat in a booth across from Aoko and beside Hattori, he found himself glancing around at the eclectic little place. Funky multi-colored lights and odd contraptions covered the walls, with exotic-looking plants lining the doorway. It would have been a little too much for his eyes, honestly, but all thoughts running down that line were quashed when he noticed that two full walls were lined with books. Automatically, he found his attention drawn to it, and he unconsciously stood up from his seat, his curiosity getting the best of him.

"Kaito, what are you doing?" Aoko asked, blinking at him, as he was jolted back to reality, having located several mystery writers he liked on the wall. "When did you start liking Ellery Queen?"

Hattori perked up at this, standing in his seat to see the titles Shinichi had plucked from the wall. Automatically, Shinichi responded, "I prefer Holmes, but…" Eyes widening, he frantically grasped around to cover his slip. "…because he appears in Maurice LeBlanc's work!"

He turned guilty eyes to Kaito, who was half-sighing in relief at this quick cover, though his eyes were still resting warily on Aoko. Suddenly smiling sweetly and tapping Aoko's arm, he said, "Actually, Aoko-neechan, it's true. I really like Holmes, and I got Kaito-niichan to read it to me! He really likes Lupin, so we made a deal that we'd go back and forth!"

Aoko considered him with slightly narrowed eyes before nodding slowly. "That's…very compromising of you, Kaito…." She looked at Shinichi strangely.

Sliding the book back into place, Shinichi slid back to the booth and sat on the edge beside Kaito, pulling him onto his lap and hugging him from behind. Kaito's eyes widened at this completely un-Tantei-kun-like behavior, but when he looked back, Shinichi gave him an imperceptible wink and apologetic look, and Kaito grinned. The detective really was doing his best to cover his slips, and he had to say, he appreciated him going so far out of his tightly-drawn comfort zones to do so.

Kaito bounced happily in Shinichi's lap as the detective held him. Grinning over Kaito's gelled-down hair, Shinichi then said to Aoko, "This one's worth it. I'm trying to stomp the detective-ness from him, but sometimes baby steps and compromises are a necessity."

Kaito shot a mock-surprised look back at him. "Stomp out my detective-ness, niichan? Nuh-uh, I'm teaching you to like detective stuff!"

"Nah, that's my job," Hattori grinned from across the table. "I'm the one who taught him about Ellery Queen, after all!"

Aoko looked around at the different boys, her gaze settling on Hattori. "You like detective stuff, too, then, Soji-kun?"

"Yeah!" He responded, cheerfully. "Kaito-niichan's magic is fun and all, but…Ku…uh, Conan-kun and I are going to be detectives when we grow up!"

"Is that so…?" She smiled across the table at him, not noticing his near-slip (not that that would have meant as much to her as to some people). "Well good. Maybe you guys can help catch that stupid thief and his descendents when you get older! That is…well, I'm not saying he'll be around that long, but…" She grimaced a little, and Kaito squirmed in Shinichi's grip, both semi-doppelgangers' hearts beating quickly as Aoko referenced the part both now had a significant part in playing…

'Oh, Aoko," Shinichi said lazily as he set Kaito back down on the seat alone and took his own back beside Hattori, "You need not worry about Kid not being around. You do know they say he's immortal, right? After all, he's a phantom thief!"

She scowled at him. "Bakaito, you wonder why Hakuba-kun suspects you?…Well maybe if you'd stop singing that criminal's praises for a damn second he'd get over his suspicions!"

Shinichi blinked at her and tapped a finger to his chin, making a show of seriously considering her proposition. "Well, let me think…hmmm…nope! Not going to happen!"

He grinned at her.

"Yeah, Aoko-neechan," Hattori said, yawning slightly as he dove into the _okonomiyaki _which had just arrived for him with fervor, "Hakuba-niisan likes to judge people, doesn't he? I don't think Kaito-niichan can do much to stop him, really."

She blinked at him and then scowled at Shinichi as she noticed the 'little boys' giving each other high fives across the table at this statement.

"Bakaito, could you please stop influencing your little cousins, for god sake? You're like…like taking away their innocence!"

"Actually, neechan," Hattori said once he'd swallowed an over-large bite of his meal, "It isn't Kaito-niichan's fault. I saw Hakuba-niisan being really rude to Heiji-niichan!"

Aoko considered him closely. "Heiji? As in…Hattori Heiji? Isn't he the high school Detective of the West? I think dad's mentioned him a few times."

"Yeah, that's right! And I'm going to be just like him when I grow up!" Hattori grinned at her.

Kaito then said, in improvised explanation, "Heiji-niichan and I are friends, neechan, so I introduced them a while back!" He grinned at her innocently and she nodded.

Shinichi shot Hattori a look, but he just shrugged slightly. Even if really, he probably shouldn't have, he honestly didn't regret the turn he'd forced the conversation in. Especially with Kaito's quick cover, it made it doubly okay, he figured. It was common knowledge, after all (to those who knew Conan) that he and the Kansai detective were close, so it wouldn't be a stretch for 'Soji-kun' to know him, too…particularly if he was interested in detective work.

But what really pushed Hattori to bring his own real name into the mix was a strong desire to prove, if only to himself, that Hattori Heiji was not out for the count. Every second he was forced to hide away, to exist in this new, totally made-up identity, he felt was a slight win for the B.O.

By just bringing up his name and drawing some connection between his real self and his assumed identity, he felt that he was not only making a little rude gesture towards the bastards who had shrunk him, but proving to himself that he was, still, that hot-headed detective, Kudou's best friend and rival, despite everything.

Shinichi and Kaito seemed to get it, at least to a point, in the glance the three shared, and they then resumed their happy banter as they continued their meal…

* * *

oOo

After leaving the restaurant, Aoko stretched a little, grinning as she pulled the boys to a large outdoor veranda from which they had a great view of the setting sun.

Grinning as he followed, Shinichi felt another sense of déjà vu as he watched her from behind, seeing her look up at the bright colors. At that instant, she really looked just like Ran. And then, with an even greater sense of deja vu, he saw Kaito staring at her with a faraway look which just didn't belong on the magician's face, Shinichi decided then. He also decided he didn't feel comfortable standing between them to watch the view, but this way…there was no way Kaito could watch the sunset with her the way he so obviously wanted to, and it brought another familiar sharp twinge to Shinichi's heart. Shooting Kaito a glance, and indicating Aoko with his eyes, the magician just turned away from him, trying to hide the moment Shinichi had witnessed.

The detective who had had just about enough of being too short for far too long, himself, however, did not take Kaito's feigned indifference seriously. With a soft smile at the fragile-looking boy, he gently hoisted him to sit high on his back, Shinichi's arms twisted behind him to keep Kaito firmly there, and then stepped forward, stepping to stand between Hattori and Aoko. Kaito was now perched so he was just above eye-level with Aoko, and the not-child suddenly found himself face to face with her.

She looked at him, vaguely surprised by the sudden proximity, feeling once again, that strange _something_ from him…something familiar, something…she couldn't explain it to herself, but it made her heart beat insistently against her ribcage for some reason. It had to be the way he looked at her, she decided. His eyes were just _so _like Kaito's…but the way they regarded her…she'd almost never seen Kaito look at her that way. And besides, Kaito was right beside her. _I'm just being silly._

Smiling at her shrunken best friend (unbeknownst to her), she found herself running her hand gently up his cheek to settle in his hair. She blinked in amusement at the bright blush her action brought to the boy's face, and then she felt slightly guilty as she noticed the other boy, Soji-kun, was snickering down below at Conan-kun's clear embarrassment.

Wide-eyed, she said quickly and softly, "Sorry, bouya! I…"

Kaito shook his head slowly, numbly. "No. It's okay, Aoko…neechan," he responded, not feeling capable at the moment of ripping his eyes from her. Part of him, honestly, felt like throwing caution to the wind at that second. His heart was aching, beating painfully in a way he'd almost never felt it. As if he hadn't already had enough secrets…and one serious secret to keep from Aoko…this second one was really eating away at him more than he thought it would.

Especially because this time, he could be even less of himself around her. Even though he'd always been somewhat reluctant to open up to people…particularly since his dad had passed away…at least he could be himself, mostly, around Aoko (with the exception of mentioning his night personality). But now, he couldn't even do that. He was under an assumed name, and even if she felt something wasn't right about him…because why else had she looked at him that way?...It was useless.

But he couldn't help but feel there was more to her look, more to the way she saw him now, than as some random little boy. But it couldn't be. He had the body of a 7-year-old, for god sakes! Even if she knew, he couldn't do anything for her, right now. Telling her would only bring her pain, and that… He sighed. He couldn't do it. He had to be strong for her.

But he had to say… He had a hell of a lot more respect for Kudou Shinichi now. Now, he really did understand what it had been like for him all that time…and honestly? It sucked ass.

Kaito blinked, and was knocked from his reverie by a remarkably soothing touch on his leg. Shinichi, having noticed his space-out, was rubbing his bare calf in a calming, understanding motion. It was odd. He would never have allowed the detective to do this, and most certainly the detective never would have considered such physical contact had the magician been in his usual body, but…as it was, with the mental strain of the moment, and of the last few days, coming to a head, Kaito felt himself resigning himself to his child body, acting as it demanded he do…

With a little shiver, Kaito collapsed forward against Shinichi's back and circled his arms around his neck in a tight hug, burying his face in the larger, warm neck. Shinichi's hand instinctively moved up to rub his back in a slow, soothing pattern, his large hand not having to move much to cover every inch of the now tiny back. Kaito felt himself relaxing in the warm touch, in the safety of it…and soon, he fell asleep, still in that position.

Aoko looked worried, but when she saw the innocent little face had relaxed into that of a normal, sleeping child's, she smiled and gently ran a hand through the soft hair. Smiling at Shinichi, she said, "He looks so sweet, doesn't he?"

Shinichi just nodded mutely, carefully moving Kaito's little body around to his front so he could hold the sleeping not-child more securely.

"Is he okay, though?" She whispered. "He looked upset for a second before he fell asleep." Her brows were furrowed in concern.

Shinichi nodded and smiled at her reassuringly. "He's fine. He's just had a long day…a little sleep, and he'll be good as new."

She pushed any disappointment that their time together be cut short away and nodded in understanding. "Shall we go home, then?"

"Sure," Shinichi responded, his brow tensing again as his eyes moved, again, over Kaito's prone form. He pulled him a little more tightly to his chest, and looked to Hattori, motioning for him to come on and start back with them. Hattori hurried on his short legs to stay beside them, and his eyes didn't leave Kaito's form for more than a second.

Shinichi thought he knew why...why he and Hattori seemed to be unable to unlock their eyes from the little body he was holding. It was painful-more so than he could have imagined it would be-seeing Kaito-_Kaito! Kaitou Kid_!-acting this way. The person who lived by the law of poker-face, and who dealt with most everything through laughter and optimism…to see him stripped apart this way. Not only of his poker-face, but of his…of his grown-up self, really…to see him acting, really, like a little kid…it was shocking, and Shinichi could see, now, how hard the magician had been hit with all of this.

It's just, with his usual exuberance, none of them (not even Kaito himself) had really noticed before that moment…Had he had time to be alone? To cry? No…he hadn't had an instant alone. At least Hattori and he lived together at the Kudou mansion, so the Kansai detective could let out some steam, but Kaito had had to be on 24/7, really. If not acting in front of Ran or Aoko, he'd been busy with preparations or pranks. And it had clearly caught up with him.

Hattori's thoughts as he watched his fellow sufferer were much in tune with Shinichi's. He also, clearly, and with vague horror, saw himself in the shrunken thief. He saw the weakness he knew was creeping right below the surface, and he was, honestly, somewhat terrified. If he met up with Kazuha, then…would he end up like this? He gritted his teeth and forced his fists into his pockets. _Yep. I've gotta feeling my breakin point isn't so far from his…_

What really shocked and pained both of them was, again, just how much like a real child Kaito looked. Every hint of the obnoxious, brilliant, prank-loving but caring person they'd come to know was stripped away as the boy had thrown his arms, shakily, around Kudou's neck. The way his fists clutched desperately to the detective's shirt, and the way Kaito shook like a limp leaf before finally passing out really disturbed the Kansai detective. Even Kudou's reactions to the suddenly truly child-like magician shocked him, and he could tell from Kudou's expression that he, himself, was shocked by his own responses.

And yet, they both felt an undeniable desire to comfort this person who shared their strange fate. Whether it was in a way he would have been insulted by, normally, or not, the magician seemed, for the moment, at least, to take comfort from the touch…and so, when one of Kaito's hands flopped down before him, Hattori automatically reached up and clutched it reassuringly, fighting away his teenage brain's screaming at him to take back his personal space. Right now, Kaito looked like a kid, and seemed to take comfort in being treated that way, physically. Hattori had the feeling, however, that that only went so far as those who treated him this way recognized his adult mind, even while treating him, physically, more gently.

The way he was acting was certainly greatly due, Hattori surmised, to the encounter with Aoko, but…how much did it have to do with the body? Again, would he respond the same way if he were to see Kazuha? Kudou hadn't with Ran, but then again…he had always been so incredibly disciplined in certain ways about himself and pretty constant in his desire for physical space. Probably as a child, too, he hadn't often let people get too close. But Kaito, most likely, if his adult self and constant behavior were anything to go by, had always been a touchy person. And reverting to his child body just exacerbated that.

And so, Hattori shoved his misgivings aside to comfort his friend in the only way he could think of, at the moment, and kept the soft little hand tightly in his own similarly-sized one.

Aoko wondered at how silent her companions had all become. They were watching Conan-kun with strange expressions, but whenever she asked, they assured her he was fine…just tired. But then why were they looking at him that way? She knew there was something up, but Kaito was being weird, too. He was never this silent. With a little pang in her heart, she realized that asking him right now would likely do little good. Even if she forced a response from him, she doubted it would be entirely truthful.

She decided she'd look more into it the next day. Kaito and Soji-kun looked quite tired, as well, after all.

Then, as luck would have it, it began to rain, and the three conscious people didn't have umbrellas. Kaito, had he been awake, would have likely materialized one, and made it seem like Shinichi had been the one responsible, but as it was, he wasn't. Aoko looked strangely at Shinichi, wondering why he hadn't done just that-materializing an umbrella as he always did-but noticed he'd gripped the child in his arms more tightly as it had started to pour, pulling him protectively into his chest.

Once they stopped before their houses, the rain had let up, and Aoko said quietly (as to not wake the sleeping boy still clutched to Shinichi's chest), "Are you going to be okay putting them to sleep, Kaito? Do you want some help?"

Shinichi smiled and shook his head. "I think I'll be perfectly fine. It's just been a rather crazy few days is all, Aoko. I think an early bedtime is in order and we'll all be in perfect working order by tomorrow!"

She smiled back, but still looked at him piercingly, as if trying to see through his mask to whatever they weren't telling her. "Well, fine. But call me if you need anything, k?" A slight blush creeping up her face, she added, "I…had fun. Thanks for hanging out. I'll, uh…see you tomorrow, then?"

Shinichi blinked at her but then smiled back warmly. "Sounds good. But…" And he yawned widely. "First is sleep. Sleep tight, Ahoko," and he winked.

"You," she hissed. "Don't make me hit you while you have a kid in your arms."

"Just put it on my tab," Shinichi responded evenly, waving to her as he walked down the main walk towards the Kuroba house.

"I'll hold you to that!" She called after him, laughing. "Bye, Soji-kun! Tell Conan-kun I said bye when he wakes up!"

Hattori spun around to smile cutely at her, saying "Hai!" before running after the others.

Aoko watched them until the front door closed behind them. She wasn't sure why, but there really was something about that Conan-kun. She couldn't keep her mind off of him. She felt as if she'd met him before…many times before…as if they really _knew each other, _and had for years. She shook her head. "Maybe I'm in need of sleep, myself! I'm totally over-reading things!"

And with a little laugh, she turned down her own sidewalk to face the usual night of annoyed banter with her foul-mouthed father.

* * *

oOo

They didn't say much to each other as they walked through Kaito's house. It was only about 9, but after meeting eyes with Hattori, Shinichi decided to go ahead and deposit the still-sleeping Kaito on his bed. Gently setting him down and taking his shoes off, he pursed his lips, wondering what to do about the magician's slightly-wet clothing. "Uh…it doesn't look really comfortable to sleep in those clothes," he mumbled, looking uncomfortable.

"The idiot should have taught us how to do that pink-smoke dressing thing," Hattori commented offhandedly.

"Heh, yeah right…well…and we don't know where any child-sized clothing is in this house…guess he can just sleep in his boxers."

"That's all you, Kudou," Hattori grinned unhelpfully.

"Shut it," Shinichi responded, but quickly pulled off the little jacket, shirt, socks and pants, hurriedly tucking him in and positioning him on his pillow.

"At least there isn't anything to see," Shinichi mumbled.

"Yeah, that's something we're all pretty familiar with," Hattori muttered, resting his chin on the side of the bed, watching the sleeping magician with empathetic eyes.

Grimacing a little as he watched him, Shinichi sighed. "Poor guy. This was pretty rough for him…"

"Yeah…" Hattori then shrugged and said, "But once he's back to normal he's gonna be pretty pissed off if he finds we've been sitting around feelin sorry for him," he continued, perking up some. "Do ya wanna explore the house a bit? And figure out sleepin situations?"

"Sure," Shinichi smiled in response. His eyes then landed on a large portrait in the room of a magician, probably in his late twenties, surrounded by a dozen white doves. Under his dark top hat, Shinichi saw a man who looked a lot like Kaito, and somewhat surprisingly like his own father…

"I'll take one guess as to who that is," Hattori said. "Guess it makes sense the fathers would look alike if the sons are identical," he added for good measure.

Shinichi rolled his eyes, but his expression hardened as he looked, again, back at the tiny sleeping figure in the bed. "So this is the man those bastards killed…the reason Kaito…"

"Yeah, well that's just another reason for us to get back at them, yanno?"

"Yeah…"

The next hour had the two detectives nursing cups of decaf coffee as they picked through the eclectic home for books which did not have to do with magic, pranks or Arsene Lupin…something easier said than done. They then realized, grumbling in annoyance, that the other bedrooms were moderately unusable…Kaito seemed to have taken it upon himself to use the mattresses from the guest bedrooms (and the master bedroom) for some prank-or-other, as they were definitely missing. Finally, however, they located a twin-sized futon in a hall closet. The other rooms were so dusty that, with misgivings, Shinichi and Hattori dragged the twin futon back into Kaito's somewhat-clean (after his earlier pink-smoke job) bedroom, putting it on the ground beside Kaito's bed.

"Well, Hattori, why don't you sleep with Kaito?"

'Wha? Kudou, you've gotta be joking. I'm NOT sleeping with that…" he sputtered. "I mean, he'll molest me in the night!"

"Well, there'll be more room that way," Shinichi reasoned (somewhat guiltily, considering the reasons for the extra room)…

Hattori glared and grumbled but eventually gave in after considering, first of all, how much he liked to stretch his limbs when he slept and, second of all, how much softer Kaito's bed was than the futon Shinichi was planning on using…

With another hot glare at his fellow detective, he climbed onto the bed, instantly rejecting any half-joking offers from Shinichi to help him up, and settled in as far away from Kaito as he could in the bed…something, admittedly, which wasn't too difficult considering the size of their bodies, and eventually, he fell asleep.

With a slight sigh as he looked at his friends, looking so innocent and frail settled in the bed together, it hit Shinichi how wrong it all was. But at the same time, at least they had each other. Understanding and recognition were so incredibly vital to getting through seemingly impossible situations. And in his time as Conan, no one had made him feel that way more than Hattori and Kid. Even before he really knew him, Kid had known his identity, and had kept it a secret, and had always treated him with respect and as a worthy rival despite his body… and that meant more to him than he could say…

And Hattori…the hot-headed but brilliant detective had quickly become the closest friend he'd ever had (besides Ran) while he was still trapped as a kid. With Hattori, he could always be himself, even when he wasn't quite sure who that was anymore…

But whatever these two needed that he could do for them, he knew with renewed determination that he would do everything he could to do, to provide. With a slight clutch on his heart, and a heightened and more urgent resoution to follow through with their plans, Shinichi settled onto the futon beside their bed and drifted off.

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Thanks for reading! More emotion-heavy chapter than my previous (in this story, at least). Hope you enjoyed it!

Please review! Thanks so much~

tess4aria


	13. Chapter 13

_**Chapter 13: Phantom Curiosity**_

Again, thank you so much for your reviews :D Love you guys. If you have a spare second, please let me know what you think of this chapter! Hope you enjoy it~

I do not own Meitantei Conan~

_**Please R&R~!**_

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oOo

Hattori was right to be wary of the little magician's likeliness to 'molest' him during the night. Not that Kaito saw it that way. From his sleepy perspective, he had drifted out of his fitful dreams to find himself wrapped in warm covers, but without many clothes on. He was cold, but there was something warm to his right. Automatically moving closer to the source of warmth, he wound his arms around the soft, over-sized teddy bear beside him, snuggling his head into the crook of its neck and capturing the legs which were just the right size in his own before drifting off to sleep again.

Shinichi was the first to wake up. After staring at the ceiling for a while, his mind then turned to that place it was oft to turn to first thing in the morning: namely, _where the hell is my coffee?_

Sitting up, he turned to ask Kaito about it when he stopped, eyes widening, at the spectacle before him. Covers half-off, sharing a pillow, the two most recent Apotoxin victims were curled up together, face to face, Kaito's arms tightly around Hattori's back while the shrunken detective's hands were bunched between them.

With a mischievous grin which would have done Kaito justice any day, Shinichi quickly (and as silently as possible) raced around Kaito's room until he found a camera.

At the sound of the shutter going off, Hattori made a little half-waking sound of protest, and his eyebrows furrowed. Stretching slightly, he seemed to have found the warm body in front of him to be not-so-objectionable, and snuggled closer, one of his hands moving up to settle in the magician's soft, messy hair.

"Kazuha," he whispered, his face pressing against the little magician's cheek. Shinichi was just about to step in to stop what would no doubt be an explosion of epic proportions momentarily… when Hattori froze, one hand still in Kaito's hair, his other below the covers, somewhere between them…green eyes shot open and there was a high-pitched scream of horror as he roughly pushed back.

Kaito, waking up suddenly and blinking, stared back at Hattori in almost equal shock.

"Y-you-" Hattori began, stuttering and pointing at him, but Kaito cut him off effectively.

"Hei-chan? I didn't know you rolled that way!"

Looking at the offending, roaming hand in question, Hattori's face stained as deeply red as it possibly could on his darker skin, and began to sputter incoherently before throwing himself into his pillow, looking, for any one who saw, like he was trying to smother himself to death.

After blinking a few more times, Kaito seemed to have gotten over it himself, and crawled over to where Hattori was yelling curses into the mattress. Stroking his back slowly, he said, "Hey, it's no big deal, Hei-chan! I don't mind!"

His hand was then promptly slapped off and the little magician decided to let him stew in his mortification. Turning to meet Shinichi's wide eyes, still glued to the scene before him, Kaito said offhandedly, "I suppose you saw all of that, Meitantei?"

"Uh…pretty much, yeah. Just…not what was going on under the covers, though I have my suspicions," he added softly, trying to keep a straight face.

This, at least, got a response out of Hattori, who convulsed where he was and turned to face him with an astonishingly fierce glare for his little body, and almost screamed: "Kudou! I'm gonna kick your ass if you- ah!" And throwing himself again on the bed, he resumed his string of curses.

"Oh, get over it, Heiji, it's not such a big deal," Kaito said as he sat back to lean against the wall, head resting on his arms. Something about the tone in his voice quieted Hattori's curses a notch, but he still continued to mutter them under his breath.

Shinichi sat down on the bed, watching the two. Tilting his head to catch Kaito's glance, he noticed the little magician looked uncharacteristically serious, smiling only when he turned to see Hattori continuing to mutter self-directed insults.

"At least it's just us, Heiji," he said softly. "Wonder what Aoko thought last night?"

At this, Hattori finally stopped muttering and raised his head to watch Kaito. He'd forgotten about the previous night's…occurrences…and in light of them, his own little…embarrassing actions… ceased to seem so mind-blowingly important.

Shinichi moved a bit closer, but still kept his distance, worried that how he'd coddled the magician the night before had contributed significantly to how he was feeling.

Kaito seemed to catch on to this when he looked into Shinichi's worried eyes and smiled softly at him. "I actually appreciate what you guys did…even if it kind of scares me that I needed it. But…I think I really did at that moment. I don't know. I wasn't myself last night…"

"Kaito…" Shinichi began.

"Well, at least my kid alibi is pretty firmly in place, right?" He said, smiling somewhat forcedly around at the others.

"You know, Kaito," Shinichi said softly after watching him in silence for a minute. "I know this…transformation… can take a real toll. After a while, you start to wonder who you are, or how much of who you are rests on the way people treat you, or the way you look…you can feel like you're losing yourself…so easily."

He was looking at the bedspread as he spoke, fists clenched. "But don't forget. Don't forget that, no matter what, you're the only Kuroba Kaito…the only Hattori Heiji…and I'm the only Kudou Shinichi. And if you think about it…I know the circumstances are screwed up in this case so it's different, but not knowing who you are is just part of going through life. I think that, once we get out of this for good, we'll look back at it and see, yeah…maybe it changed us, but…not necessarily for the worse. I know that I'm different from how I used to be, before I was Conan. But it's not that I'm Conan now…just Shinichi with Conan's experiences. And I don't think I'm a worse person for having been him."

"Hafta agree with ya there, Kudou," Hattori muttered, then grinning at Kaito. "He was such an attention-lovin show-off before…at least as far as I've been told," he added, laughing lightly.

Shinichi rolled his eyes, muttering "Shut it," Hattori's way before his face sobered and he continued. "I mean it though. My experiences, no matter how insane, have made me who I am, and…just…know that there's no way you'll really stop being yourselves, just because the body or the circumstances make you act a certain way. We all know, anyway…who we are, that is. And we're working to get out of it, right? So even though some things are painful…they aren't everything." Chuckling awkwardly, Shinichi said, "Oh, sorry guys, didn't mean to ramble so long…"

"No, you're…you're right, Shinichi…I appreciate it." Kaito said. Smiling up at him, his expression more unclouded, far less weighed-down by secrets and difficult thoughts than before, he then clapped his hands together and grinned at the others. "Well then…as necessary mental preparation to plot for taking down a certain group of life-destroying assassins, how about some breakfast?"

Hattori's stomach shouted its assent, and the three laughed, Shinichi getting mildly hyper as he remembered his dear coffee which _better_ _be waiting for me…_

It was. Lovely, mind-powering caffeine.

The morning's (and previous night's) moments of consternation all but forgotten, the Kuroba household was quickly filled with its usual energy as Shinichi, being the only one able to reach the stove without a chair, made French toast as he sipped at his coffee, listening to the usual Lupin vs. Queen argument behind him as Kaito absentmindedly juggled an assortment of household products and cookware. After a few failed attempts to snatch several necessary kitchen items from the quick-fingered thief, Shinichi had resigned to just naming the utensil he needed, the magician happily tossing it to him from his whirlwind of items…

"Are you sure this is sanitary, Kaito?" Shinichi had asked him the first few times, but he eventually resigned himself to the magician's enthusiastic assurances, figuring this was just part of being around Kaito, and the sooner he stopped worrying about every possible thing which could be wrong or go wrong around him, the better, less he be overwhelmed with anxiety.

Breakfast over, Kaito had fixed his companions with a manic grin, motioning for them to follow him to his room to begin 'phase two preparations.'

Shinichi rolling his eyes at the bottomless well of energy the shrunken magician seemed to have as he did several cartwheels (up the stairs) as he led them along, they then found themselves back in Kaito's bedroom, standing in front of the portrait Shinichi and Heiji had noticed the night before.

Hattori's eyes widened. "You're kiddin me. Your hideout's behind this picture? That's pretty cliché."

Kaito shot him a fierce glare at this, opening his mouth to respond when Shinichi interrupted him. "Kaito. So that's your dad?"

The snarky response he was preparing to hit Hattori with forgotten, Kaito nodded slowly, his bangs falling over his eyes as his mouth curved into a half-smile. "That's dad, yeah." Looking up at Shinichi with determined eyes, he said, "Think of him as your teacher…these are his secrets I'm about to show you, after all."

Shinichi nodded, mouth set and firm. "Got it," he said softly. "Lead the way."

Smiling more easily, but shoulders still obviously tense, Kaito reached up to press the side of the portrait. It didn't budge. "Dammit! Stupid thing…"

But then Hattori's hand touched the portrait beside his, and with a half-smirk at the magician, their combined pressure worked to set the trick wall into motion.

Kaito clambered through into the passage behind, but Hattori just stared into the darkness, almost getting slammed in the back by the circling portrait's other end. Shinichi had the presence of mind, however, to race forward and scoop Hattori up, safely landing both of them on the other side.

Then, the lights flashed on, and the detectives stared.

They were standing in the corner of a large room with sound-proof walls, gadgets of almost every kind imaginable littering the place…a collection of fun-house-looking mirrors…and a…car.

Hattori lightly kicked Shinichi's arms, the no-longer-shrunken detective having forgotten he was still holding his shrunken friend, to get him to release him…and made a beeline for the car.

Turning to stare at Kaito in totally disapproving shock, he said, "Hey thief. Why the hell don't you ever use this car? It's awesome! Vintage, but…" Jumping up to look through the windows, and circling around the vehicle, he continued to mutter, "But it has a lot of power. Man, I'd like to take her out sometime…"

Then grinning back, he said, "If you're not planning on using her, would you mind if I take her off your hands?"

"Hmmmm…" Kaito put a finger to his chin and grinned at Heiji. "What'll you give me in return?"

"Uh, let's see. Maybe not sendin your ass to jail? How'd that be?" Hattori smirked at him.

"Now, Hei-chan. We've had this discussion already. How could you send me to jail without incriminating yourself? You've already expressed interest in being my sidekick~"

Hattori sputtered a little bit, growling about "Did no such thing…" and then, "Sidekick! You arrogant-...Kudou! Back me up, man!"

But Shinichi didn't answer, too absorbed in closely examining a camouflaged button half-way up one of the room's many diamond-shaped mirrors. Tearing his eyes from the mirror, Shinichi raised an eyebrow at Kaito, unable to fully hide how his hands were shaking slightly in anticipation. He got his confirmation in the little thief's satisfied nod.

Pressing the button, the wall of mirrors began to shake before spinning and changing position, finally opening to reveal a walk-in dressing room and behind it, a number of different passages leading down or around in odd directions. The detectives instantly set to work trying to figure how this was even possible in the less-than-mansion-size house…without immediate success. Walking more closely to examine the labyrinth-like rooms, they saw that covering nearly every inch of the walls of the passageways were countless masks, wigs and costumes… An elaborate make-up area, as well, opened up in one of the more centralized passageways, with an array of latex masks lining a long table… and in the front, in a place of honor, was the outfit Kid was most known for, top hat and cape hung dramatically, the monocle resting safely on a little burgundy cushion.

Eyes popping slightly, the detectives had to restrain themselves from following their curiosity down one of the several dark passageways. It wasn't too difficult to manage this, however, for the Kid suit, itself, held much in the way of anticipatory interest for them both.

Kaito chuckled at his two friends' obvious interest and appreciation of his father's (and now his) collection. Grinning at them, swaggering forward slightly, he said, "Dad didn't do things half-way."

"I can…see that," Shinichi said softly. He only spared a momentary glance at Kaito, however, as he was having a difficult time dragging his attention from the monocle. Like a nervous itch, he felt himself drawn to it. The Kid regalia-the phantom he'd chased for so long. Here it was, all before him, and even though he _knew_ Kid, now, there was just something different about suddenly finding himself here in the middle of it all.

After all, Kaito may be the Kaitou Kid, but he was also human. The monocle, though... The legacy and the costume that his father had worn before him... Perhaps, it was in these items, in the concept itself, Shinichi considered, that lay the real phantom.

And after having worn it once before, he felt the strongest urge to try it again. _What's wrong with me? I'm a detective! Why am I so interested in the idea of this thief?_

Unnoticed by Shinichi, Kaito was watching his temporary, quasi-protégé from below, eying him with a mixture of amusement and a flash of something else…perhaps there was the slightest spark of envy, but more pentrating was a deep understanding tinged with a sense of loss. But now wasn't the time to get lost in the past and the inconceniences of his immature body. Wiping away all but his little poker-face smirking smile, he pushed Shinichi forward, knocking the detective out of his own reverie, cocking his head at the detective in a meaningful, short movement before standing back to lean against the mirrors expectantly, arms crossed.

Hattori stepped over to stand beside him, watching with one eyebrow cocked as Shinichi carefully reached down and picked up the monocle.

He barely breathed at first as he handled it in his hands-it was heavier than he remembered. It occurred to him, vaguely, that the costume hadn't made anywhere close to such an impression on him the first time he'd donned it, but then again, he'd been under a lot of pressure that time. With their lives at stake, he'd barely had time to register his disturbing similarities to the real Kid before he'd been swept up in the act and the escape.

But now. Each article of clothing he slipped on, almost as if in a trance, felt like slipping into a hot bath-the first touch shocking, needing to be dealt with slowly and carefully, but the further you slip in the easier and faster it becomes, until you find yourself surrounded in a pleasant, invigorating feeling.

With a grin, he fixed the red tie over the blue shirt. So far, so good. Then, reaching up to unhinge the white jacket, he slipped it on, quickly and carefully, buttoning it up carefully, barely sparing a glance in the mirror before slipping on the white silk gloves, one after the other. Then he paused for a breath, looking at his reflection. With a sideways glance at Kaito, he took one gloved hand up and brushed it uncharacteristically through his hair, ruffling it in a way more reminiscent of Kaitou Kid's true person, before donning the top hat and fitting the monocle in place.

For a minute, he just stared at himself in the dozen or so full-length mirrors which circled him, the long white cape flowing back and looking to be many times its length due to the cascading reflections. Unable to stop himself, Shinichi smirked at himself in the mirror. When Kaitou Kid smirked back, he grinned…and it occurred to him, it wasn't _his _grin. Not Kudou Shinichi's. He wondered wildly if there really could be a phantom living in the suit who made Kid of whoever wore it.

And then he wondered if all of this play-acting was seriously getting to his head. Nonsensical ideas such as the one he'd just expressed, even to himself, just didn't sit well with his detective side.

_Detective side?_ _Since when was it just a …side? _

It was undeniable that, like a nervous tick, something in him was curious...curious about Kid. He had been since their first encounter, and the encounters and countless chases he'd had with the enigmantic thief had only served to immortalize Kaitou Kid in his mind. And now that he was actually here, dressed as the thief who had captured his attention for so long, a big part of him wanted to experiment, to do more. To try more.

"Hey Shin-chan, follow me," a voice knocked him, once again, back to reality. Blinking, Shinichi made a vague sound to show he'd heard and began to follow the shrunken magician. They hadn't gone but a few feet when Kaito said, "ah, and the card gun is in your right inside-inside pocket.

Blinking, Shinichi reached into the white jacket, and found, sure enough, that there were pockets within pockets…actually, pockets within pockets _within pockets_…and the familiar card gun was right where Kaito had indicated…odd that he hadn't noticed its weight before. In fact, there seemed to be all manner of things crammed within the jacket-how they all fit, and how their weight seemed imperceptible until he'd actually touched them with his gloved hands, was a mystery he was somewhat unsure of how to approach. And this unnerved him. But back to the matter at hand.

"Kaito? Why did you tell me where-"

He trailed off as he took in their newest surroundings with shock. _Why I'm still surprised by anything Kaito-related beats me..._ But undeniably, this newest room was awesome. Large, with a high ceiling and cushions padding the walls, half of the room was made up of what looked like an obstacle course, complete with a large structure built to pose as a high-rise building with a fire escape running up its side. On top, the railing and assortment of other uneven surfaces made it clear to Shinichi that Kaito had had plenty of practice maneuvering their usual battlefield. On the far wall hung an assortment of gadgets, tools and vehicles...several rows, Shinichi noticed with a sigh, were dedicated to differently scented smoke bombs...

Too entranced by his surroundings, Shinichi didn't notice when Kaito muttered "Stand back and watch" to Hattori. Suddenly, however, the magician's voice timbre changed, lowering slightly to the game-face Edogawa Conan voice.

"Well Kid-san, I've caught you this time," the voice smirked, reverberating through the room.

Eyes widening, Shinichi spun just in time to see a soccer ball flying for his head. With a little squeak, he stumbled backwards, landing on his backside, the ball just missing his head.

"Tsk, tsk," Kaito said, wagging his finger back and forth in disappointment. "You have to work on your reflexes! Tantei-kun doesn't give much warning before he uses his soccer ball from hell, you know~"

Shinichi sputtered a little before pushing to his feet and setting a fierce glare on Kaito and Hattori, who were smirking identically at him.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do that, Shinichi," Kaito said, grinning. "Oh, karma loves me after all...!"

"Oh, shove off..." Shinichi glared at him, but then, brushing himself off, he smirked back, and his voice, almost naturally, took on a more mischevious, Kid-like lilt. "Now now, Tantei-kun, don't get arrogant, now. I'm a gentlemen, after all, and being such, thought it would be rude not to let you get at least _one_ lucky shot in this fine evening..." And with a wink, he lifted the card gun a shot it at the smaller figure before him...

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Shinichi's getting into being Kid a little now, huh? Sorry for the weird cut-off point, but there will be more fun to follow! That is, assuming this was fun. Please let me know :) As always, I really appreciate your advice/feedback!

Thanks so much! Hope you enjoyed reading this~

tess4aria


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